s : \ 



**» 






FIVE YEARS IN A PERSIAN TOWN 



YEZDI TYPES. 

* 1. A qan'at maker. This is the man who digs the tunnels by 
which the water is brought from the base of the hills to the towns in 
the plain. The leather bag on his arm is a bucket. 

2. A Parsi raiyat, or agriculturist, with his spade. 

3. A porter. 

4. A charvadar (muleteer) from Laristan. These very big men 
often come to Yezd with caravans. 

5. A Jew, who is divining from his book for the charvadar. The 
Jew has his boy with him. 

6. An oil-seller. He carries the oil in gourds. 

7. A darvish, or religious mendicant. 

8. An Arab. These are sometimes seen in Yezd^ but like the Lari 
charvadar they do not really belong to the town. 



* The numbers are from the left. 



FIVE YEARS 
IN A PERSIAN TOWN 

BY NAPIER MALCOLM 



NEW YORK 

E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY 

1905 



s -' 



Printed in Great Britain. 



# 
t 



PREFACE 

I feel that this short sketch of a Persian town 
needs an apology. It will not improbably be 
mistaken for a book of travel. Stopping five years 
in one place is not travelling, and the experience 
of such a stay is not a traveller's experience. The 
descriptions that will be found in this volume 
refer to a very small area, and consequently a 
good deal of minute work has been attempted 
that would have been out of place in the painting 
of a larger sphere. 

Then, again, this is not a book upon mission 
work. There is comparatively little about the 
very interesting work which is being carried on 
in Yezd by the Church Missionary Society, but 
there is a great deal about the circumstances 



vi PREFACE 

under which missionaries work, for the book is 
really a description of a Persian town from the 
missionary point of view. This will explain why 
certain details, such as the dress and food of the 
people, are left out altogether ; for, although there 
may be some connection between these things 
and the kind of way in which missionary work 
ought to be conducted, it is not at present apparent 
to the writer. On the other hand, the general 
effects of house, street, and desert, which meet 
the Yezdi's eye at every turn, have been rather 
elaborately described, for scenery and scenic sur- 
roundings have much effect on character, and 
the study of character is essential in missionary 
work. 

In most of the descriptions I have taken 
special care to preserve the true proportion be- 
tween good and evil, so far as I have been able 
to estimate it in the thing described. I have 
specially done this in the necessarily incomplete 
sketches which I have drawn of the Yezdi's char- 
acter and religious beliefs. But in dealing with 



PREFACE vii 

the Persian Government I have consciously 
deviated from this practice. Consequently, I must 
ask the reader to regard all references to the 
Government as going no further than the actual 
statements. I have also, as far as possible, avoided 
alluding to political problems ; for, in a country 
like Persia, for a man engaged in serious mis- 
sionary work abstention from politics is almost a 
sine qua non. 

It will, perhaps, be felt by some that more 
ought to be made of the points in common be- 
tween Islam and Christianity. The fact is that 
when people come to the missionary they do not 
want to find agreement but disagreement, and 
consequently the missionary gets to think not so 
much of what they know as of what they do 
not know. So a missionary writer is, perhaps, 
inclined to pass over common points, whatever 
religion he is writing about. In the case of 
Islam there are really not many to note, and in 
support of this statement I may relate a story 
told by an officer of Indian troops. One day 



viii PREFACE 

a Mohammedan, in the course of a conversa- 
tion, said to him : " Of course, Sahib, your 
religion and ours are very near together. Your 
Christ is one of our prophets." My friend 
replied : " What do you mean ? Of course Christ 
is one of your prophets, but to us He is more than 
a prophet ; He is the Son of God and the pattern 
of our lives. Besides there is hardly a single 
practical point where Mohammedans and Christians 
are not entirely at issue." The man looked up 
and said : " Sahib, you have read the Quran, and 
you have read your Bible. I always make that 
remark to Christians : I made it to a padre the 
other day: and they almost always say, 'Very 
true ; Mohammedanism has a great deal in 
common with Christianity.' Well, Sahib, when 
they say that, I know that they have not read 
the Quran and they have not read their Bibles." 
My best thanks are due to Miss Mary Bird, 
whose name is well known both in Persia and to 
all interested in that country, for the valuable 
assistance that she has given me out of the wide 



PREFACE ix 

and unique experience that she possesses on the 
subjects handled in my book. I am also very 
grateful to the Rev. G. Furness Smith for several 
valuable suggestions. 

I am indebted to the Rev. C. H. Stileman 
and to Mr Paul Peter for some of the photo- 
graphs illustrating the book. The coloured prints 
and the picture of the School are from drawings 
by a native artist, Mirza Abu'l Qasim. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 



PAGE 



The Yezd district — Desert — Water supply — 
Villages — The town of Yezd — Gardens — 
Streets — Houses — Furniture — Cleanliness — 
Undurability of buildings — Built for heat — 
Hill villages — Effect of surroundings on 
intellect and character ..... 1-35 

CHAPTER II 

Isolation and insularity — The town the geographical 
and political unit — Extension of citizenship to 
strangers — Bigotry — Oppression and persecu- 
tion of Parsis — Improvement in their position 
— Position of Jews — Fanaticism largely non- 
religious — Position of European colony. . 36-59 

CHAPTER III 

Persian Mohammedanism — Mohammed — Founding 
of Islam — Shiahs and Sunnis — Laxity distin- 
guished from infidelity — Central doctrines of 
Islam — The Divine Unity — The prophethood 



xii CONTENTS 



PAGE 



— Behal view of the prophethood — The Bab 
— The Behaullah — BehaTism — Its prospects — 
Islam — Predestination — Repentance — Savabs 
— Eating with unbelievers — Charge of panthe- 
ism — Effect of Islam on character . . . 60-114 



CHAPTER IV 

Results of Islam — Untruthfulness — Superstitions — 
Pilgrimages — Divining — Jins and Divs — The 
evil eye — Trivial commandments — Entertain- 
ments — Islam includes rather than controls 
the life — Two purposes better than one — 
Ceremonial uncleanness . . . .115-135 



CHAPTER V 

Character of the Yezdi — Systematised inconsis- 
tency — Loyalty to causes and individuals — Un- 
reliability of evidence — Shame — Humour — 
Disregard of time — Language — Lack of initia- 
tive — Courage — The Yezdi soldier — Etiquette 
and manners — Triviality — Pride — Kindliness 
and cruelty — Dishonesty — Difficulty in obtain- 
ing anything — Tendency to fatalism — Latent 
strength of Persian character — Family ties — 
The jus paternum — Religious liberty — Open- 
handedness — Summary 136-187 



CONTENTS xiii 

PAGE 

CHAPTER VI 

Difficulties in dealing with enquirers — Language — 
Argument — Parabolic interpretations — Dis- 
trust of evidence — Ignorance — Attachment to 
Islam as representing whole scheme of 
life — The problem of converts — Industrial 
missions — Employment by missionaries — 
Helpful points — Readiness for religious dis- 
cussion — Quickness in grasping single points 
— Yezdi wants distinctive and systematic 
teaching — And a concrete example — Diffi- 
culties in accepting converts — Tests . . 188-216 

CHAPTER VII 

Getting into touch with the natives — The 
missionary's style of life — Visiting and re- 
ceiving visitors — Philanthropic work — Poor 
relief — School work — Medical work . . 217-255 

Conclusion 256 

Glossary 265 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



yezdi types ........ Frontispiece 

HUJJATABADj THE FIRST STAGE FROM YEZD . . . To face p. 6 

SWEET EATING IN A TALAR ,, 26 

DEHBALA ,, 34 ' 

SMALL SQUARE IN YEZD ,, 76 

CORPSES EN ROUTE TO THE QUM CEMETERY ... ,, 120 

SANDY DESERT NEAR YEZD „ 120 

CARRYING THE NAKHL IN THE BIG SQUARE IN YEZD . ,, 134 

SQUARE OUTSIDE GOVERNOR'S RESIDENCE IN YEZD . ,, 184 

A VIEW OF YEZD „ 216 

SCENES IN YEZDI LIFE „ 226 

THE SCHOOL ,, 242 

map at the End 



FIVE YEARS IN A PERSIAN TOWN 



CHAPTER I 

The Yezd district — Desert — Water supply — Villages — The 
town of Yezd — Gardens — Streets — Houses — Furniture 
— Cleanliness — Undurability of buildings — Built for 
heat — Hill villages — Effect of surroundings on 
intellect and character. 

In the very centre of central Persia there is a 
town called Yezd, which in some ways may be 
uninteresting, but ought for a student of Persia 
to have the greatest interest, for it possesses all 
the regular attributes of a Persian town to an 
exaggerated degree. These Persian towns can 
be better understood after some consideration of 
the country in which they lie. Some one, I think, 
has said that Persia consists of two parts, the salt 
desert, and the desert which is not salt; and 
though this is not true of all parts of Persia, with 
regard to most of the interior of Persia it is as 



% SALT DESERT [chap. 

nearly true as a reasonable man can expect an 
aphorism to be. In the vast district where Yezd 
lies you find an archipelago, with sand for sea, 
and towns and villages for islands. If you want 
to know how big that desert area is, I can only 
tell you that we went to Yezd, which lies in 
the very centre of Persia, from the southern 
shore of the Caspian, which is the northern 
boundary of the country, and with the exception 
of a belt of land at the extreme north about 
thirty miles broad, and a patch round Teheran 
about twenty miles across, we literally passed 
through nothing but desert. 

But desert in Persia is of many kinds : even 
the salt desert is not all the same. There are 
places where the ground is absolutely bare, except 
for the thick crusts of salt that lie like snowdrifts 
streaking the surface in every direction. There 
are also places equally salt where the proximity of 
a certain amount of useless water produces a larger 
quantity of plant life than in most parts of the 
ordinary desert. The ordinary desert is good soil, 
and wherever water can be brought to it, it is 
extremely fertile. Generally it has a hard but 
rather gravelly surface. Sometimes it is flecked 
with dry brownish shrubs about the size of 



i.] SANDY DESERT 3 

bedding-out plants, sometimes it is quite bare. 
There is in parts a good deal of scattered growth, 
but two plants never touch one another. In the 
more favourable places shrubs may be found at 
an average of not more than two yards apart, 
but, with one exception, I have never seen in the 
desert plains of central Persia a place away from 
the hills with sufficient natural growth to modify 
the colour of the distance. 

Then there is the sandy desert. Here also, if 
the sand is scraped away and water brought, the 
soil is good, but in appearance the sandy desert is 
the most desolate of all. Absolutely nothing 
grows on it. It is like the worst kind of salt 
desert, without the relief of the white patches. 
Yezd lies in a big stretch of sandy desert. Some- 
times the sand may be broken by a large piece of 
gravelly plain, but such places are generally as 
bare as the sands themselves, and form no real 
break in the dull monotony. 

Of course there are oases ; but what is called an 
oasis is not really very different in character from 
the desert that surrounds it. It is the same desert 
artificially cultivated. In the plains the water is 
brought from a distance, and when it is applied the 
ground consents to nourish exactly those seeds 



4 OASES [chap. 

that have been sown. There are hardly any 
weeds, no turf, no tangle, no hedges, and no waste 
green. Every blade in the artificial wheat-field is 
an isolated unit, that may be pulled up without 
disturbing its neighbour. Even in the fresher- 
looking gardens, enclosed and concealed by high 
mud walls, there is the same meagre, bedded-out 
appearance on every side. In spite of the pos- 
sibility of three artificial harvests in the year, one 
sees at a glance that the very roots w T ill inevitably 
be annihilated when the water is cut off, and of 
course this happens pretty frequently. There are 
no wild trees at all, and those that are reared are 
very small, and scanty in leafage. Such oases as 
these go by different names, according to the 
quantity of water. Those that can support a 
fairly large population are towns, those that can 
support a smaller one are villages, those that can 
only support one or two households are called 
cultivations, or mazra's. But, however big or 
however small, they are no interruption to the 
continuity of the desert. 

In the hills and round their bases there is a 
trifle more plant life, but there is no strong 
contrast to the barrenness below. Only high up in 
the creases of the mountain sides, right above the 



l] MOUNTAIN STREAMS 5 

cultivations and villages, there are the narrowest 
strips of turf on either side of the snow torrents. 
Here one may find small ferns nestling under the 
boulders, and quantities of soft flowers, or an 
occasional wild barberry bush. Away from the 
actual bed of the mountain streams one is again in 
desert of a kind, though here, too, the scattered 
dry shrubs will be found alternating with more 
succulent varieties of plants, and the landscape is 
by no means entirely bare. 

As soon as these streams reach ground that it is 
possible to level into terraces, they are used for 
irrigation, and become the stalks of minute 
mazra's. Then come long hill villages with 
orchard trees and walnuts ; and lastly, if there is 
any water left at the real mountain base, there will 
be a round irrigated patch of rather larger extent 
on the edge of the plain. 

In the middle of the plains water may be found 
about sixty yards beneath the surface, a depth 
from which it may be drawn through wells for 
drinking purposes, but not in large quantities for 
irrigation. Consequently, if the snow torrents 
were the only source of water supply, the centres 
of the Persian plains would be uninhabitable ; for 
in districts like that of Yezd the rainfall is so 



6 WATER SYSTEMS [chap. 

trifling that nine or ten not over large falls of rain 
or snow in the twelve months constitute a wet 
year. But water that is found at sixty, or even a 
hundred, yards down at the base of the hills is by 
no means useless. From this point to the centre 
of the plain there is a considerable, though very 
gradual declivity. So when the original shaft has 
been sunk, and water has been found, perhaps at 
three hundred feet below the surface, a long line of 
similar shafts are sunk towards the centre of the 
desert, at distances varying from twenty to forty 
yards, the line sometimes stretching for more 
than thirty miles, until a point of desert has been 
reached that lies as deep down as the original 
water-level. Then all the shafts are connected at 
the bottom by burrows, just big enough to afford 
passage to a man ; the water is let in, and appears 
in an open ditch in the centre of the desert. Of 
course conveyance of water by these qan'dts as 
they are called, which are often thirty or forty 
miles long, is by no means inexpensive, so as a rule 
the water is used immediately it can be brought to 
the surface. Consequently we find all through 
the barren Persian plains two strange phenomena : 
little cultivations, fed by artificial channels, 
standing all by themselves, leagues away from 



l] PLAINS 7 

anywhere, in the middle of a desolate and water- 
less expanse ; and large towns such as Yezd, 
situated far away from any natural water supply, 
in the barest spot to be found in all the desert, 
the central hollow where the drifting sands 
have collected and covered over even the 
faintest vestige of vegetable life. 

The typical Persian plain is very long, 
appearing to be comparatively narrow, and 
certainly flat beyond conception. The plains 
through which one approaches Yezd from Kashan 
or Kirman are probably on the average about 
sixty miles broad. But the huge barren mountains, 
lying in long jagged ranges to the right and 
left, show with such plainness of detail from 
every point, that the traveller unused to the 
clear atmosphere of the East can hardly credit 
the full size and distance. Mountains, plains, 
foreground, and far perspective, everything, in 
the Yezd district at any rate, is one neutral tint 
of brown, except for the snow lying on the rocks 
of the mountain-top, the long flakes of salt 
scattered here and there about the plain, or the 
continual moving mirage. Even at sunrise and 
sunset, when the sky and distant hills put on a 
colouring of glorious brilliancy, there is an utter 



8 VILLAGES [chap. 

absence of those soft tones in the foreground 
which can only be given by sunlight in a humid 
atmosphere. 

Near Yezd there rise into sight brown villages, 
excrescences of the same material as that on 
which they stand, isolated separate objects with 
sharp definite bounds. The scanty, hedgeless 
crops that surround them, usually arranged in 
oblong patches like small allotments, seldom show 
until the traveller is quite near ; the few trees 
are wretchedly poor in size and colour, and the 
walls and buildings are simply mud, of which 
three parts are in ruins. 

After a few of these villages we come to Yezd 
itself, equally isolated from everything, and in 
other respects very much the same as the villages. 
However, as we approach the town by most of 
the main roads, there are no fields and no trees 
at all. Also there are sticking out from the 
town a lot of high square air-shafts, looking like 
short factory chimneys. Yezd, like the villages, 
is brown, but there are a few patches of white. 
There are one or two very faintly tiled minarets 
and a newer-looking green dome ; but these things 
are not sufficiently striking to modify the general 
brown effect. 



l] PERSIAN GARDENS 9 

Now we are among the baghs. 1 A bagh is 
an enclosure, generally oblong, consisting of mud 
walls twelve feet high, surrounding a planted area. 
Very often a bagh contains nothing but fields 
of farm crops. The better class baghs, belonging 
to the richer Persians, have in the centre a kind 
of summer dwelling-house with plenty of porticos, 
built on a very open-air pattern. Such baghs 
are well stocked with fruit trees and rose bushes ; 
there may also be a few small elms, or short 
poplars, or perhaps some cypresses. There are 
not many flowers. Here, too, most of the area 
is given up to farm crops. Everything is laid 
out after the plan of a Dutch garden, but without 
the turf and thick foliage, and also without the 
extreme trimness that we connect with such places. 
In the better gardens there is always a small 
gutter of running water, and generally an artificial 
tank with a stone border. This is the part of 
the bagh most highly prized by the natives. In 
Persia a small artificial channel with a stream 
of water about two feet across seems to give 
that air of distinction to a house which we expect 
from a well-kept lawn with good flower-beds. 

1 The author has, with a few exceptions, accentuated native words 
only where they first occur in the book. 

B 



10 STREETS [chap. 

From the road nothing can be seen of all this 
greenery except the tops of the highest trees. 
In Yezd indeed only the baghs that lie some 
way out up the course of the qan'ats show as 
much as this. Just round the town nothing is 
to be seen but the bare walls and the gateways 
of the gardens. The gateways have some brick- 
work about them, and are sometimes partially 
whitened. They stand back from the road. The 
tops of the mud walls are generally in bad repair, 
and here and there we come across a jagged 
hole that has been made as a short cut into 
the garden by the gardener. In such cases the 
pieces of mud and sun-dried bricks, when they 
have been taken out, lie in the street. Where 
the surface of the thoroughfare has not been taken 
up for bricks, which by the way are left to bake 
in the sun in the middle of the road, it is generally 
used for drying manure that has been kneaded 
with a modicum of earth. The dyers also use 
the street for hanging up their cloths to dry, 
and also for arranging their skeins of silk, which 
they twist round wooden pegs stuck into the 
wall about forty yards apart. The road surface 
is a little irregular, and occasionally it is made 
more interesting by a shaft leading into a qan'at. 



i.] BAZAARS 11 

As we approach the houses proper the road 
narrows, for it is only the natural lane between 
enclosures, and the house enclosures, which from 
the outside are exactly similar to the bag/is, lie 
closer together. 

Occasionally, as we near the centre of the 
town, we come across open squares with a small 
mosque on the one side. The wall of the mosque 
is dirty white, and there is a little black lettering 
over the doorway, but very little tile or brick. 
In the middle there may be a dilapidated octagon 
with a flat top, about five feet high and six 
across, built of mud covered with tiles rather 
the worse for wear. Round such squares there 
are generally arched recesses, filled in at the 
bottom, so as to make a ledge three feet from 
the ground. The bazaars are just the old narrow 
lanes, covered by a succession of mud domes 
forming a continuous but untidy roof. The goods 
are displayed on tiers of mud ledges, and there 
is a mud room behind. Quantities of the wares 
are mud. Firepans, barrels for grain, several 
kinds of toys, bread receptacles, and some other 
household implements are simply clay, moulded 
into a rough form, and dried in the sun. Water- 
bottles, various kinds of pitchers, children's money- 



12 USE OF MUD [chap. 

boxes, and hookah-bowls are baked with fire, but 
without the slightest glaze. The baker's ovens 
are made of mud, down to the very doors. Many 
of the Yezdis even eat mud, and develop an 
unwholesome muddy complexion. 

The cleverness of the Yezdi in manipulating 
mud is beyond belief. Sometimes you may see 
men in the streets making barrels for storing 
grain. First of all a smooth round slab of mud 
about an inch and a half thick, is moulded on the 
ground. Then another piece of mud is kneaded 
into a long sausage, and placed in a hoop upon 
the edge of the slab. Sausage after sausage is 
added hoopwise, one on the top of the other, 
until a height of about four feet has been reached. 
Each hoop, as it is laid in position, is worked with 
the hand into smooth connection with the hoop 
below, and when the barrel is completed there is 
not the least vestige of a join. The whole is done 
without wheel or machinery of any kind. A mud 
lid is added which is soldered on with mud when 
the barrel is filled. 

I have hardly yet succeeded in giving any 
adequate impression of the untidiness of the 
streets. The central courtyard of the house is 
generally a fair-sized garden. For reasons con- 



l] ATMOSPHERE 13 

nected with the water supply the inhabitants of 
the houses are continually altering the level of 
these places, and large quantities of earth are 
emptied into the street or carried out of it every 
day as occasion may arise. All along the sides of 
the streets there are shallow holes for rubbish 
heaps ; here and there there are cesspools ; and yet 
with all this the streets are so well scavenged by 
dogs and children that, except in the Jewish 
quarter, the thoroughfare is comparatively clean, 
while, thanks to the powerful sun and the absolute 
absence of moisture in the atmosphere, almost the 
only obtrusive smells from one end of the town 
to the other are those that hang round the public 
baths and the places used by the dyers. 

Let us now enter one of the doorways that 
leads into a better class house. We find ourselves 
first of all in a round or octagonal porch, covered 
by a small dome, which is generally pierced in the 
centre to admit light. From this porch we go 
through a passage into one of the court-yards. In 
a good house there are two, or even three court- 
yards. The whole family live in the better com- 
pound, and the men receive their visitors in the 
smaller one. Though this rule is not without 
exception, the better class women in Yezd do 



14 HOUSES [chap. 

not seem to have much to complain of in the 
matter of housing. 

In the court-yard there will be found an open 
tank and some flower-beds ; the rest is generally 
paved. The flower-beds are below the level of 
the pavement, and are irrigated from the tank. 
Watering-pots are used for watering the pavement 
only. Sometimes the whole garden is sunk to the 
level of the cellar floor, so as to get nearer to the 
qan'at. The house itself consists of two sets of 
buildings, chiefly one story, with perhaps one or 
two upstairs rooms. The upper rooms, however, do 
not really form a separate story, but are built over 
the lowest of the ground-floor rooms, so as to bring 
the roof more or less to one level. The roofs are 
generally paved with flat bricks of the shape of tiles, 
and are surrounded by a low mud wall, so as to 
form a more or less secluded and cool place, where 
the family may sleep in summer. Perhaps a dome 
may partially project above the level of the rest 
of the roof. Also there is the inevitable bdd-gir, 
or square air-shaft, running down to the back of 
the big summer portico, or tdldr, and furnished at 
the top with long slits on all four sides to catch 
any air that may be moving. This talar is the 
principal room on the summer side, which faces 



L ] SUMMER BUILDINGS 15 

north. It is often built in the form of a cross 
with very stumpy arms, or rather of an oblong 
with the corners so taken off as to render it 
slightly cruciform. The long side of the oblong 
faces the court-yard, and has no wall at all, but 
there is a curtain of tent-cloth that moves up 
and down on pulleys. To the right and left of 
this sun-blind are short walled-off passages, which 
are used as entrances. Corresponding to the pro- 
jecting front part between the passages there is 
at the back a recess under the bad-gir, completing 
the cruciform design. The roof is arched into a 
high dome. The whole talar is raised three feet 
above the level of the garden, so as to give room 
for a two-foot upright grating, which is the window 
of the cellar room underneath. For five months 
in the year these are the only habitable rooms in 
a Persian house ; and they are both furnished as 
living-rooms. The rooms on either side of the 
talar are so like the winter rooms that it is un- 
necessary to describe them separately. 

The whole structure of the place is quite 
different from that of an English building. 
Except for enclosing a rough garden the Persian 
builder hardly ever makes a blank wall. Some- 
times the walls of the compound, generally the 



1& ARCHES [chap. 

walls of stables and outhouses, but always the 
sides of rooms, passages, and porticos consist of 
a series of arches more or less carefully moulded. 
In the house, unless they are intended for doors, 
windows, or cupboards, these arched recesses are 
filled in to a height of three feet ; so that round 
every Persian room there is a series of ledges, 
called taqchas, about the size of a small mantel- 
piece, generally a span deep, but sometimes very 
much deeper, and running in instead of running 
out. If the height of the room will allow it, there 
is a line of straight moulding above these arches, 
and above that a second row, usually much shorter 
than the lower ones. Above that comes a second 
series of lines of straight moulding, shelving into 
the arch of the roof, for the ceilings are always 
constructed on the arch principle, although they 
are sometimes flattened on the top when it is 
intended to build an upper room. These arches 
are built of brick and mud only, without any wood 
or wooden foundation ; and indeed no wood is used 
in a Yezd house at all, except for doors and 
windows. 

You will find three styles of wall in Persian 
houses. Sometimes the rough mud is coated over 
with a smoother surface, either clay and chopped 



L ] HOUSE ORNAMENTATION 17 

straw, or clay and sand, and the brown colour is 
left unchanged. In fairly good houses this style 
is often thought good enough for the summer 
portico. Very often the angles of the mouldings 
are pointed with white gypsum, and when orna- 
mental designs in the same fashion are added, 
the effect is exceedingly pretty. But generally 
the living rooms in a Persian house are entirely 
whitened with gypsum, and a moulded design, 
about an eighth of an inch thick, is made in the 
centre of the ceiling. These complicated and 
accurate geometrical designs are produced by the 
natives with no better tools than a chisel and a 
bit of string. The formation of the arches and 
straight mouldings without instruments is equally 
wonderful, but though the appearance is 
geometrical two arches never exactly correspond 
with one another if one comes to measure. Still 
the construction of a Persian room, perhaps with 
a large dome, without any better materials than 
clay, gypsum, and a small modicum of baked 
brick, without any scaffolding or wooden basis, 
and with the help of none but the very simplest 
tools, is a thing that may be accounted one 
of the most extraordinary marvels of the 

East. 

c 



18 WINTER SIDE [chap. 

As in the summer, so in the winter side, the 
best room is generally in the centre. The better 
rooms are almost invariably approached from the 
side and not from the front, being separated from 
one another by passages that run to the whole 
depth of the buildings. This enables the entire 
frontage of the room to be given up to windows. 
Generally some of the rooms have a large cup- 
board room at the back, which is frequently used 
for sleeping in. As the floor of the house is three 
feet above the level of the compound, the passages 
between the rooms are furnished with steps, but 
they have no doors. Consequently, to shift one's 
quarters in such a house necessitates going into 
the open air. The smaller rooms are generally 
approached from the front, and in this case they 
sometimes have an aivdn, or mud verandah. The 
winter rooms always take up the north end of the 
compound, but are often built along the east or 
west side as well. 

Rooms are generally named by the number of 
their windows, which is usually three or five A 
good five-windowed room will have a frontage of 
five arches filled in with French windows. The 
semi - circular fanlight consists of pieces of 
coloured glass fixed together in a wooden lattice. 



i.] WINDOWS 19 

The lattice at a distance resembles fret -work, 
but is really elaborately pieced together. Some 
of the older windows contain exceedingly fine 
work, but even when it is well done it is not 
very durable, and nowadays they can only do 
very rough work. Some of the work that is forty 
or fifty years old is marvellous, but could not be 
done at the present time for love or money. The 
French window itself consists of two doors which 
are supposed to meet in the middle. There are 
no hinges, but each door has a wooden foot which 
turns in a mud socket. The arrangement of the 
coloured glasses which forms the panes is extremely 
artistic. The same sort of wooden lattice is used, 
but the pattern is rather larger than the pattern 
of the fanlight. As may be supposed, it is 
extremely difficult to keep these windows clean, 
for the panes, besides being very minute, are 
simply caught into grooves in the wood ; and, as 
the work is done without any great accuracy, 
they very seldom fit. The doors are made after 
the same design as the windows, but they have 
wooden panels. They are often surmounted by 
a glazed fanlight. The wood of the doors and 
windows is covered with a yellowish-brown paint, 
and warps very badly, as it is used in an un- 



20 GENERAL EFFECT [chap- 

seasoned state. Our cat could generally get in 
through a bolted door. 

Of course there is no form of door fastening 
which can be used from both sides, and in this 
way as in others a Persian house is distinctly in- 
convenient. Still the style of building when fresh 
is very pretty. These masses of French windows 
with their coloured panes artistically arranged, 
the lines of white arches all along the sides, and 
the high-arched ceiling with its curious mouldings 
give the room an ecclesiastical appearance, At 
the back of the room there is not infrequently 
a corresponding line of door-windows, leading to 
one of those cupboard - rooms which I have 
before mentioned. This arrangement increases 
the regularity of the general design. 

Before passing on to describe the furniture 
I must mention that there is one other totally 
different style of window, which lifts up in a 
sash, without pulleys, and is supported when 
open by metal stays. Also it is very common 
to find wooden lattices unglazed. Paper or 
calico is pasted over these in the winter. 

There are one or two other forms of orna- 
mentation that are not uncommon. Perhaps a 
line of painting, quaint but distinctly artistic, 



I-] 



FITTINGS 21 



may run round the room just below the taqchas, 
giving the effect of a dado. Sometimes the roof 
is much more elaborately moulded, and is 
spangled with little bits of looking-glass; when 
this is not overdone the effect is pleasing. It is 
not uncommon to find very poor looking-glasses, 
about twelve by six inches, let into the walls. 
There are in almost every room rings attached 
to staples, which are intended to support the 
baby's hammock. Fireplaces are a European 
importation, but they are generally to be found 
in at least one room of the better class houses. 
They are almost always narrow, and comparatively 
high, so as to conform to the arch design, and 
they are made in the wall without any metal. 
The metal fittings of the room, such as hammock- 
rings, staples, and door and window latches, are 
made of whitened iron curiously engraved ; and 
nails of the same material with very large heads, 
from one inch to three or four inches across, are 
used freely by the Persians for ornamenting 
woodwork. 

The movable furniture of a Persian room is 
very simple. Curtains are not used very freely, 
and those that are used are rather scanty. 
Generally they are hung up by the corners 



22 CARPETS [chap. 

without any string. In the men's apartments 
they are used more for doors than for windows. 
The favourite pattern is a very crude green or 
red with a large lozenge in the middle, like the 
design on a watered silk. 

The only really valuable things in a Persian 
room are the carpets. In some cases these are 
laid right up to the walls, and a piece of drugget 
something less than a yard wide is also laid along 
the walls, usually on three sides of the room. 
In other cases there is a border of very thick 
clumsy felts arranged round the carpet which 
occupies the centre of the floor. The felts are 
self-coloured, with a small amount of stamped 
pattern. They have not got cut edges, but are 
made in one piece, consequently the shape is very 
inaccurate. They cost nearly as much as good 
carpets, and are often protected with druggets in 
the same way. In the place of honour, furthest 
from the door, is a mattress stuffed with cotton, 
covered with some sort of chintz or cretonne, 
and furnished with one or two very large round 
bolsters. In the winter there is also occasionally 
a kursi in evidence, but they are less common 
in Yezd than in other Persian towns. The kursi is 
a rough stool, about as high as a milking-stool, and 



i.] FURNITURE 23 

about eighteen inches square, completely covered 
with cotton quilts and rugs, which trail on the 
ground on every side. Beneath this an iron 
brazier of lighted charcoal is placed, and the 
family tuck their legs underneath the wraps, and 
squat round the kursi on the floor. This, how- 
ever, is not generally kept in the room except in 
the coldest weeks. During the remaining seasons 
the brazier is often brought in on a large copper 
tray, either for heating the room, or for keeping 
the teapot warm and for opium smoking. All 
copper and iron utensils in Persia, such as these 
trays and braziers, are carefully tinned. 

Tables in Yezd are made in the roughest 
fashion, but the legs are nicely turned, the Yezd 
carpenters being greatly inferior to the turners, 
who are entirely distinct from them, and who 
produce very good work with the simplest class 
of hand-lathe worked with a bow. The carpenter, 
on the other hand, is incapable of putting up a 
shelf straight. He never dovetails, and he 
disguises the inaccuracy of his joints with plentiful 
deposits of clay. 

Many of the Yezdis use little tables about three 
feet by two, and standing about twelve inches high. 
These are used only for tea-things. But tea is 



24 CHAIRS AND TABLES [ohap. 

generally made by an inferior, standing at a tall 
table in the corner of the room. These tables 
are rather larger, not less than four feet by two. 
They stand as high as an English sideboard, and 
have a rough border of curved or dog-tooth pattern 
falling down from the slab, so that they very 
much suggest a rough dressing-table. They 
are often brought in and out of the rooms 
as they are wanted. People who wish to be 
thoroughly European in their manners sometimes 
have a larger table of the same kind permanently 
in the room, surrounded by a few bentwood 
chairs, which are brought up from Bombay, or 
folding-chairs with cane seats, which I think they 
bring from Isfahan, and about which the less 
said the better. Such a table is always covered 
by a white cloth, the most fashionable variety 
being a Turkey bath-towel. 

These chairs and larger tables are no real 
part of Persian plenishing, while the tea-tables 
are being continually carried backwards and 
forwards, and are not necessary to the equip- 
ment of the room. Consequently the room does 
not present a very filled appearance. The few 
utensils which it contains, other than those 
mentioned, are placed upon the taqchas. On one 



i.] SMALL ARTICLES 25 

of these taqchas may be seen a pair of lalas. 
The lata is a spring candlestick with a globe, 
and is, I believe, made in Europe. The candles 
are also imported. All lights in Persia have to 
be carefully protected from the wind, as the 
house is not a continuous building, but a series 
of outhouses. On another taqcha will be found 
a lamp, also of European manufacture. Persian 
lamps, which are simply saucers of native vegetable 
oil with a floating wick, are used freely about 
the house when a strong light is not required, 
but they have the disadvantage of blackening 
the gypsum of the walls. With regard to the 
imported lamps it is a curious thing that, although 
the lamps used are of the cheapest variety, with 
stems and reservoirs of blue or white glass, lamps 
with short stems, which might be brought into 
the country at an infinitely less cost, do not seem 
to have come into fashion. On a third taqcha 
is sure to be found a specimen of the Persian 
hookah, or qalidn. This is a most elaborate 
pipe, and is both made and bought in sections. 
The large bowls, however, when they are made 
of glass, are, I believe, imported ; also some of 
the china heads. 

Sometimes you will find on the taqchas a pair 

D 



26 ORNAMENTS [chap. 

of European vases. In Yezd the pattern is almost 
always that of the hand rising up from a stand 
and grasping a tapered vessel. Sometimes also 
you will find cheap Continental oleographs, 
generally ladies' heads. These are bought by 
the pair, and you will find two copies of the 
same picture standing side by side. Another 
European import to which the Yezdis are much 
attached is a looking-glass. These are of the 
oblong shape, with varnished or gilt frames. 
Perhaps also one will see on the taqchas a covered 
glass vessel with a long spout, containing rose- 
water. 

In the women's rooms there is occasionally a 
large wooden trunk for clothes, covered with 
gold and silver paper, and of a very clumsy design. 
The taqchas may be covered with plush cloths, 
and this is sometimes the case in the men's 
apartments. The women are also fond of highly 
ornamented trinket boxes. 

The better class Yezd houses are exceedingly 
clean, and so on the whole are the people who 
live in them. In this Yezd is distinctly superior 
to some other Persian towns. The houses of 
the rather poorer classes in Yezd are dirtier, but 
they would compare favourably with those of 



SWEET EATING IN A TALAR. 

This is the principal part of the summer buildings in a Persian 
house,, and the bottom of the picture is the level of the compound. 
The room underneath is a living room, and is lighted by the grating 
under the talar. It is only used in the heat of the day. The door 
to the cellar staircase is seen on the right of the picture. The 
passage is the approach to the talar itself. 

The three men are sitting in the ordinary Persian way round a 
tray of sweets. The Yezd sweets are remarkably good and have no 
coarse flavour. They eat them as we do cakes_, but in rather larger 
quantities. This talar is a small one. The larger ones are generally 
cruciform in shape. It has no bad-gir (air-shaft) or front curtain. 



i.] CLEANLINESS 27 

a corresponding class in many parts of Europe. 
The very poor class are crowded together, many 
families to one house, and, live in a condition of 
filth as great as the dry atmosphere will permit. 
You must remember that the native never removes 
his clothes for the night ; indeed he only removes 
his clothes or washes his body when he goes to 
the public bath. The fee for admission is a mere 
trifle, but people do not go to the bath unless 
they have an absolutely clean set of clothes to 
change into when they have bathed. A few of 
the poor people take off their clothes on arriving 
at the bath and wash them, staying in the bath 
until they are dry enough to put on again. This, 
however, is exceptional, and generally speaking 
the difference in the standard of cleanliness 
accepted by the richer and poorer Yezdis is 
very large. 

Houses that are not very new are always 
more or less tumble-down. The mud ceilings 
crack very easily, and the white gypsum flakes 
off at the slightest touch. The more essential 
parts of the structure are equally undurable. But 
you must remember that no Yezdi wants his 
house to last for ever. When the house is first 
of all built, a large chamber is made below the 



28 UNDURABILITY [chap. 

surface to receive the drainage, and the size of 
this is determined by the length of time the 
owner wishes his house to last, which is generally 
forty to fifty years. When the chamber is full, 
the rich occupants move to another house, and 
the house gradually falls to pieces. To the Yezdi 
an old house means a bad house, and this idea 
is so deeply rooted, that even in his bagh he 
seems to prefer young trees to those which have 
attained their full size. The idea of a residence 
which bears the marks of natural growth, and is 
not simply artificial, has never entered into the 
Yezdi's mind ; and the absence of this to us 
familiar idea, has to be reckoned with in dealing 
with his character. Also it must be remembered 
that two-thirds of a Persian town, and three- 
quarters of a Persian village, is from various 
causes invariably in ruins. I suppose that in 
an English climate the best-built Yezd dwelling 
houses would remain standing for about a fortnight. 
In spite of their palatial design they are really 
nothing but mud huts, and when you live in 
them, or rather about them, for you are in the 
open air as often as you are inside, you learn 
their imperfections to your cost. Nobody can 
realise the immense amount of damage that can 



i.] ENDURANCE OF COLD 29 

be done in a town like Yezd by a really wet 
day. Some while ago we had twenty-four hours 
of rain, which destroyed, I believe, about a couple 
of hundred roofs, and, what is worse, caused the 
older qan'at pits to fall in, blocking the water 
supply in some parts of the town for three months. 
Is there any other town in the world where a 
little extra rain causes a three months' drought ? 
There is a story in Tehran about a Dutch 
Ambassador, who was so afraid of the roof falling 
down that in wet weather he invariably slept 
under the table. However he was a very tall 
man, and, when the catastrophe happened, he 
got his foot crushed. 

Still the summer buildings in a Yezd house 
are really not bad. Generally speaking, the 
Persian builds well for heat and badly for cold. 
Yet the short Yezdi winter is a very severe one ; 
and we, who are accustomed to a longer cold 
season, are astonished to see the philosophic way 
in which the Yezdi sets himself to endure the 
cold while it lasts, without taking any particular 
precautions to defend himself from it. The long 
window-front is a mass of spaces and cracks. 
Even when panes are not missing, daylight is 
frequently to be seen between the glass and the 



30 HOUSES BUILT FOR HEAT [chap. 

lattice, between the window and its frame, and 
sometimes between the frame and the wall. This 
of course is not including the crack between the 
two doors, which is often half an inch wide. 
Remember that every door in the house is a 
front door, leading into the open air, and you 
will get some idea of the provision made against 
the winter cold. The fact is that the Persian only 
understands two kinds of winter requirements, that 
of the hard living working-man who demands 
only the simplest shelter against the cold, and 
that of the man who on cold days can devote 
himself to keeping warm with a kursi in an inner 
apartment. A man who wants to do his work 
comfortably in any sort of weather is entirely 
beyond his calculation. On the few days when 
snow falls the merchants' offices are practically 
deserted, and no one but the smaller tradesmen 
and artisans goes to the bazaars. 

The house, as I have said, is really built for a 
protection against heat. When I first went 
to Yezd I was surprised to find how 
tremendously the natives were affected by the hot 
weather. The native is certainly less affected than 
the European by the direct rays of the sun ; but 
although something in the climate seems to tell on 



i.] HILL VILLAGES 31 

Europeans after two or three years' residence, I 
would back a fairly strong Englishman, furnished 
with a sun-helmet, against the average town Yezdi, 
to get through a piece of work on a hot day, or to 
keep up continuous hard work for a season or two. 
Consequently every Yezdi who can afford it tries 
to get away from town for at least two months of 
the year. The hill villages, which the Persians 
call yaildq, or summer quarters, lie about thirty 
miles away from the town. Every well-to-do 
Persian has a house in one or other of these 
villages, and there is a fashion about them, some 
being resorts chiefly patronised by the artisans, 
and some by the big merchants. 

As most of the richer Persians have more than 
one house in the villages, Europeans generally have 
no great difficulty in hiring a place to stay at. The 
houses are left during the winter in charge of a 
villager, who uses the lower rooms only, the upper 
ones being then uninhabitable from the intense 
cold. Indeed the cold is so great that we were told 
that one winter the animals had been dying of thirst, 
as the water was frozen beyond the possibility of 
breaking the ice, and they had not fuel enough to 
melt it. The whole building is much rougher than 
the town house, though the roofs have to be made 



32 JOURNEY TO VILLAGES [chap. 

more carefully. The villages are very small and 
isolated, and the winter population is quite trifling. 
There is in these villages a little arable land, but 
the people depend chiefly on root-crops, nuts, and 
dried fruit for their winter stores, and on the 
produce of the sheep and goats. The animals are 
tended in summer by the children. The little 
boys spend most of their time up the walnut trees, 
throwing down leaves for them to eat, while the 
little ragged shepherdesses carry a twelve-foot staff 
for whacking the walnut trees, when they do not 
climb them in the same way as their brothers. 

Those who go to the villages in the summer 
take with them everything they need in the way 
of carpets, furniture, and cooking utensils, also 
all groceries, and even wheat and charcoal ; for 
the commonest things of this kind are often 
absolutely unprocurable. A rich Persian has 
stores frequently sent to him from Yezd during his 
stay. Even in Yezd some necessary store or other 
is almost always running short, so that something 
is generally at famine prices. This, of course, is 
due to the great isolation of the town. But in the 
villages it is intensified. Sometimes there will be 
no meat, at another time hardly any bread, and 
some years ago we found it almost impossible to 



i] HOME SURROUNDINGS 33 

procure milk, and were told by our Persian friends 
that they had the same difficulty. This eighteen- 
hour journey, with all the paraphernalia of the 
home, is the average Yezdi's only experience of 
foreign travel ; and for this reason I have thought 
it necessary to give some account of what he sees 
and finds. 

I have now done my best to describe in detail 
almost the whole of the Yezdi's surroundings, the 
furniture of his room, the pattern of his house, the 
streets of his town, and the vast deserts by which 
he is isolated from the world. When he gets up 
in the morning, he finds himself in a room 
practically containing nothing but a carpet, the 
walls and ceiling an expanse of white gypsum, and 
the taqchas provided with solitary objects upon 
which his eye can rest in turn without the slightest 
diversion to anything else. There is no confusion, 
but at the same time there is no arrangement. In 
such a room, with such furniture, the necessity for 
arrangement never occurs to him. He goes out 
into his court-yard ; certainly there are flower- 
beds, but they are not cut like English flower-beds 
in the middle of necessarily existing growth and 
greenery. The shape of the beds and the nature 

of their contents has not been chosen with the 

E 



34 HOME SURROUNDINGS [chap. 

slightest view to their artistic surroundings ; they 

are simply artificial constructions in a waste of 

pavement which itself conceals the desert which 

stands to the Persian in the place of the natural 

world. Inside the beds each plant grows its own 

life, by itself, untouched by its neighbour, and the 

eye unconsciously fixes itself upon it as on an 

isolated unit. The Yezdi leaves his house and 

passes through an absolutely dry and scentless 

atmosphere along streets which present variety 

only in the matter of form. He goes for a journey 

across the desert plains ; to the right there is only 

one object to be seen, a range of distant 

mountains, with a slight variety of jags along the 

top ; to the left there is a similar range. Every 

now and again he comes across a shrub which 

attracts his eye by its hermit existence. Behind 

him is the solitary city ; every six miles, while he 

is in the neighbourhood of the town, there is an 

equally solitary village, or perhaps a water-cistern 

with a domed roof; for league after league he can 

see in front of him his solitary manzil, where he 

intends to stay the night. Even when he goes to 

the villages this sparseness of life and circumstance 

is scarcely modified. Can you be surprised if this 

hourly contemplation of isolated units produces a 




X a 
w ° 

O S 



i.] EFFECT ON INTELLECT 35 

mind which it is impossible for the tangle-reared 
European ever to fully understand ? Can you be 
surprised if an intellect is produced accustomed to 
almost unbelievable concentration upon single 
and solitary ideas, but almost unreachable by 
minds that are accustomed to complicated trains 
of thought, to careful evasions of contradictions, 
and to systematic arrangements of their intellectual 
knowledge ? 




Plain, aboxut thirty miles 



broad, 



i^e 



■v 




Tfezd 

Qan'at, irrigating Yea.cL. 



Diagram illustrating the use of the qan'at. Notice that all the 
cultivation ahout the hills is irrigated from the snow torrent. Yezd 
is irrigated hy qan'at water, brought in some cases from a point 
30 miles distant, for the qan'ats do not go straight to the centre of 
the plain but make for a low part of the plain from wherever water 
is found. The 300 ft. well in Yezd is useless for irrigation, there 
being no lower point than Yezd. 



CHAPTER II 

Isolation and insularity — The town the geographical and 
political unit — Extension of citizenship to strangers — 
Bigotry — Oppression and persecution of Parsis 1 — 
Improvement in their position — Position of Jews — 
Fanaticism largely non-religious — Position of European 
colony. 

The population of Yezd can only be guessed 
at, but probably that of the town proper is 
between thirty and forty thousand, and that of 
the town and surrounding villages between fifty and 
sixty thousand. This little community is insular 
beyond the insularity of islands. Within two 
hundred miles there are three sizable cities, 
Shiraz, Kirman, and Isfahan, of which Isfahan is 
slightly the nearest. When you send a letter to 
Isfahan from Yezd, if your friend writes by return 
of post you may get back your answer in a month ; 

1 The dates given witli regard to this persecution are approximately 
correct ; but, although reasonable care has been taken to find the exact 
year in which the changes of restriction were made, the absolute 
accuracy of some of these dates cannot be guaranteed. 



chap, ii.] NATIVE TELEGRAPH 37 

although a runner, taking the slightly shorter road 
by the mountains, could go and return within the 
week. Travelling in the ordinary way the journey 
takes eight days there, and eight back. 

It is a great pity that within the last two years 
they have got rid of the native telegraph line. 
During my journey up six years ago this con- 
trivance was a source of never-failing interest and 
surprise to me. First of all there were the poles. 
They were rough sticks, exactly like what a 
washerwoman in England uses for propping up 
her clothes-line : I suppose, taking the good line 
with the bad, there was on the average about one 
insulator to every three poles ; this is without 
counting the insulators which were hung midway 
between the poles, apparently by way of ornament. 
The wire itself was at different levels : in a good 
many places it lay on the ground, but at others it 
crossed the road about the level of a horseman's 
chin. One day in Yezd one of the European 
residents wanted to send a telegram, and sent to 
the telegraph office to ask when the line would be 
up. They sent back a very polite message to say 
that the trouble was not that the line was down ; 
it was always down: the difficulty was that a 
camel had stepped upon it. 



38 NATIVE TELEGRAPH [chap. 

Of course they do repair the line : we saw a 
man repairing it. He had a forked stick about 
half the length of one of the poles on which the 
line was hung. With this he caught the wire and 
hitched it on to the nearest fork of the telegraph 
pole, a procedure which had at any rate the advan- 
tage of economy. I think I may say that telegrams 
by this line never went faster than the post goes in 
England. The slightest fall of snow or any other 
similar cause cut the communications altogether, 
sometimes for a fortnight ; and, on similar lines 
that were a little longer, if you sent a telegram to 
your destination while you yourself were on a 
journey, it was a quite common occurrence for the 
telegraph master at the next town to ask you to 
carry it yourself as the quickest way of hastening 
its arrival. 

Such an apparatus as this could hardly be 
expected to prove a great connecting influence. 
As a matter of fact, the Yezdi regards the 
Isfahani as a foreigner. When I was leaving 
Yezd I remember the sensation amongst my 
servants when they heard that my successor, who 
was going to take on most of them, wanted to 
bring an Isfahani butler. Yezdis hardly recognise 
the bond of a common country at all. There are 



ii.] IDEA OF COUNTRY 39 

three connecting links which appeal to them ; the 
link of a common religion ; the link of a common 
family or business, for the family tie is of a 
character that includes the relation between 
employe and employer ; and lastly, the link of the 
common town. 1 The bond of fellow-townsman- 
ship is perhaps not considered a very close one, 
but for all that it is a real link. However, if you 
were to suggest to a Yezdi that he ought to have 
something in common with a Bushiri, irrespective 
of the question of religion, simply because they 
both paid taxes to a common king, I very much 
doubt whether he would understand what you 
meant, and, if he did, I am quite sure that he 
would think that you were either joking or a 
lunatic. 

In the vocabulary of the common people it is 
difficult to find an intelligible word for country. 
There is a word for empire, but the natural equiva- 
lent in the Persian mind to our expression country, 
meaning fatherland, is shahr, which denotes a town, 
or vatan, which is the home-district, and is used in 
very much the same way. " What is your town ? " 

1 The Yezdi realises the link of a common language, but by this he 
means a common dialect. Consequently I have included this idea in 
fellow-townsmanship ; it in no way takes the place of the bond of 
country. 



40 IDEA OF THE WORLD [chap. 

is the Persian's way of saying, "Where do you 
come from ? " and although he has been taught to 
call an Englishman Inglis, he almost invariably 
calls England Landan ; indeed it is this which we 
put as an address on all our English letters. 

The Yezdi's ideas on the regions beyond his 
very narrow horizon are distinctly confused. If 
you begin to talk to him about other places, you 
are met not by mere ignorance of geography, 
but by a conception of the surface of the earth 
that is ludicrously impossible. It is difficult for 
a European to conceive of a number of towns 
and villages, containing several millions of people, 
bedded out over an enormous desert area con- 
siderably larger than the whole of France. It is 
equally difficult for the Yezdi to conceive of a 
natural and continuous land. Even those who 
have travelled a little outside Yezd, and have 
been obliged to modify slightly the Yezdi con- 
ception of the universe, have built up their notions 
of the world's surface upon what seems to us a 
most peculiar first idea; and they have in most 
cases clung to far more of their original views 
than we should believe possible. 

The Yezdi's idea of the town as the only 
geographical and political unit is simply a 



ii.] GOVERNMENT 41 

generalisation from the circumstances of his own 
city. Yezd is a solitary object rising abruptly 
out of a vast desert that is about the nearest 
thing to a vacuum which Nature has yet produced. 
Then too, the methods by which the Shah retains 
his half of the government of the country — I say 
his half, for half of the real control of the people is 
in the hands of the Mussulman clergy — is in some 
points similar to the old Roman system of pro- 
vincial government. The local governor, and not 
the supreme sovereign, is the real ruler, and he 
rather than his people is responsible to the head 
of the State. Of course he is only appointed for 
a time, and is in constant expectation of recall. 
Still, while he remains, his power is limited more 
by the power of the Mohammedan mullas on the 
one hand, and by the strength and number of 
his subordinate officials and guards on the other, 
and much less by the orders and authority that 
he receives from Tehran. But it is true that the 
Yezdi exaggerates the separateness of his town, for 
he hardly recognises the actual limitations to the 
Governor's power made and enforced by the Shah. 
Of course it is thoroughly understood that the 
Governor only holds his office by the Shah's 
appointment; but it is very difficult for the 



42 RETENTION OF PRECONCEPTIONS [chap. 

Yezdi to realise that that appointment, while it 
lasts, is to anything short of autocracy. So to him 
the local Government is the Government, and the 
local Governor the real ruler of his country, that is 
to say of the district surrounding his town ; and it 
would puzzle him if you were to tell him that there 
were people in this world, living together in one 
sphere of government, who were not resident in 
one town, or in the district that belonged to it. 

It may be urged that 1 am speaking of the 
uneducated and ignorant class, but there are 
very few in a town like Yezd who are not 
uneducated and ignorant, and even those who 
have superadded a certain degree of knowledge, 
have, in almost all cases, retained the majority of 
their preconceptions. Persians are very slow in 
seeing a contradiction ; consequently, I believe 
that this conception of the universe, which is 
certainly accepted by the ordinary Yezdi, is 
with small modifications very general even 
among the slightly travelled or educated classes. 
Nor should a student of the mental attitude of 
a people ignore the curious ideas that are to be 
found amongst the women. One who had moved 
a great deal amongst the women of Yezd, assured 
me that they were almost invariably under the 



ii.] VIEWS ON STRANGERS 43 

impression that the less familiar words occurring 
in the Persian translation of the Scriptures were 
English, and that it was a common thing for a 
woman who was accustomed to the European 
pronunciation of Persian, to be referred to as 
knowing the language of the Ferangis. Such 
people would, of course, fail to comprehend the 
possibility of a linguistic barrier very much 
greater than the somewhat considerable difference 
of dialect which separates them from their 
neighbours in Isfahan. That such a state of 
mind would be equally possible amongst the 
men I do not for a moment suppose, but if this 
is the view of the women, one may be sure that 
there is a view of the Ferangi stranger, more 
or less approximating to it, amongst many of 
the ignorant hobbledehoys and young fellows, 
who contribute the largest share to the character 
of a fanatical Persian crowd. 

Now the people of Yezd are quite ready 
after a due interval to extend the citizenship 
to strangers from other towns, provided that 
the newcomers intend to stay, and are ready to 
enter into the life of the community. The Kashis 
from Kashan, the Shirazis from Shiraz, the Laris 
from Laristan, and the Rashtis from Rasht, are 



U FOREIGN ELEMENTS [chap. 

all well-known Yezd families, and are not by 
any means regarded as foreigners. Also the 
Yezd community includes persons of three or 
four different religions. There are in the town 
fourteen hundred Parsi houses, the inhabitants 
of which are Zoroastrian. There is also a smaller 
colony of Jews. The remainder are Moham- 
medans ; but a considerable number of these 
belong to the Behai sect, and are considered 
rank heretics. The Parsis, though greatly 
oppressed in the past, and still liable to some 
disabilities, have of late years become wealthy 
and prosperous. The Jews are in some ways 
less restricted than the Parsis ; but, as they are 
still wretchedly poor, they are really much more 
down-trodden. That religious bigotry still exists 
among the Mussulmans in Yezd has only lately 
been made perfectly plain by the ghastly massacre 
of the Behais in the summer of 1903 ; but 
Mohammedan bigotry m Persia is by no means 
without limitations. It is spasmodic in its action, 
nor does it entirely obliterate every other feeling. 
A few years ago Yezd had the reputation of 
being one of the most bigoted of the towns of 
Persia. The presence of the Zoroastrian remnant, 
who were subject to the grossest persecution. 



ii] PARSI RESTRICTIONS 45 

served only to keep alive the fire of religious 
hatred ; and the community of Jews in a lesser 
degree had the same effect. The stories of the 
way in which the Parsis were bullied and perse- 
cuted are interesting, as showing, amongst other 
things, the intense childishness of the Persian 
Mussulman. The atmosphere of the town seems 
to have resembled, as indeed it still resembles, 
that of a preparatory school for little boys. Up 
to 1895 no Parsi was allowed to carry an umbrella. 
Even during the time that I was in Yezd they 
could not carry one in town. Up to 1895 there 
was a strong prohibition upon eye-glasses and 
spectacles ; up to 1885 they were prevented from 
wearing rings ; their girdles had to be made of 
rough canvas, but after 1885 any white material 
was permitted. Up to 1896 the Parsis were 
obliged to twist their turbans instead of folding 
them. Up to about 1898 only brown, grey, and 
yellow were allowed for the qaba or arkhdluq 
(body garments), but after that all colours were 
permitted, except blue, black, bright red, or green. 
There was also a prohibition against white stock- 
ings, and up to about 1880 the Parsis had to 
wear a special kind of peculiarly hideous shoe 
with a broad, turned-up toe. Up to 1885 they 



46 HOUSE RESTRICTIONS [chap. 

had to wear a torn cap. Up to about 1880 they 
had to wear tight knickers, self-coloured, instead 
of trousers. Up to 1891 all Zoroastrians had to 
walk in town, and even in the desert they had 
to dismount if they met a Mussulman of any 
rank whatsoever. During the time that I was 
in Yezd they were allowed to ride in the desert, 
and only had to dismount if they met a big 
Mussulman. There were other similar dress re- 
strictions too numerous and trifling to mention. 
Then the houses of both the Parsis and the Jews, 
with the surrounding walls, had to be built so 
low that the top could be reached by a Mussulman 
with his hand extended ; they might, however, 
dig down below the level of the road. The walls 
had to be splashed with white round the door. 
Double doors, the common form of Persian door, 
were forbidden, also rooms containing three or 
more windows. Bad-girs were still forbidden to 
the Parsis while we were in Yezd, but in 1900 
one of the bigger Parsi merchants gave a large 
present to the Governor and to the chief mujtahid 
(Mohammedan priest) to be allowed to build 
one. Upper rooms were also forbidden. 

Up to about 1860 Parsis could not engage in 
trade. They used to hide things in their cellar 



n.] JAZIYA 47 

rooms, and sell them secretly. They can now 
trade in the caravanserais or hostelries, but not in 
the bazaars, nor may they trade in linen drapery. 
Up to 1870 they were not permitted to have a 
school for their children. 

The amount of the jaziya, or tax upon infidels, 
differed according to the wealth of the individual 
Parsi, but it was never less than two tomans. A 
toman is now worth about three shillings and eight 
pence, but it used to be worth much more. Even 
now, when money has much depreciated, it 
represents a labourer's wage for ten days. The 
money had to be paid on the spot, when the 
farrash, who was acting as collector, met the man. 
The farrash was at liberty to do what he liked 
when collecting jaziya. The man was not even 
allowed to go home and fetch the money, but was 
at once beaten until it was given. About 1865 a 
farrash collecting this tax tied a man to a dog, 
and gave a blow to each in turn. 

About 1891 a mujtahid caught a Zoroastrian 
merchant wearing white stockings in one of the 
public squares of the town. He ordered the man 
to be beaten and the stockings taken off 
About 1860 a man of seventy went to the bazaars 
in white trousers of rough canvas. They hit him 



48 DRESS RESTRICTIONS [chap. 

about a good deal, took off his trousers, and sent 
him home with them under his arm. Sometimes 
Parsis would be made to stand on one leg in a 
mujtahid's house until they consented to pay a 
considerable sum of money. Occasionally, how- 
ever, the childish mockery that pervaded the 
persecuting ordinances enabled the Zoroastrians to 
evade the disabilities proposed. For instance, as 
the Jews had to wear a patch on the qaba, or coat, 
the mujtahids in about 1880 tried to make the 
Parsis wear an obvious patch on the shirt. 
Muhammad Hasan Khan was then Governor, and 
Mulla Bahrain of Khurramshar, a Parsi, asked him 
to arrange that his people should have three days' 
respite to get the patches ready. During these 
three days the Parsi women set to work, and made 
a neat embroidered border round the neck and 
opening of the shirt. This the Parsis exhibited as 
the required patch ; and as it was very obvious, 
and was certainly an insertion, there was really 
nothing more to be said. In Yezd a small score 
like this counts for more than does a firman of the 
Shah. 

In the reign of the late Shah Nasiru'd Din, 
Manukji Limji, a British Parsi from India, was for 
a long while in Tehran as Parsi representative. 



ii.] REVOCATION OF RESTRICTIONS 49 

Almost all the Parsi disabilities were withdrawn, 
the jaziya, the clothes restrictions, the riding 
restrictions, and those with regard to houses, but 
the law of inheritance was not altered, according to 
which a Parsi who has become a Mussulman takes 
precedence of his Zoroastrian brothers and sisters. 
The jaziya was actually remitted, and also some 
of the restrictions as to houses, but the rest of the 
firman was a dead letter. 

In 1898 the present Shah, Muzaffaru'd Din, 
gave a firman to Dinyar, the present Qalantar of 
the Parsi Anjuman, or Committee, revoking all the 
remaining Parsi disabilities, and also declaring it 
unlawful to use fraud or deception in making 
conversions of Parsis to Islam. This firman does 
not appear to have had any effect at all. 

About 1883, after the firman of Nasiru'd Din 
Shah had been promulgated, one of the Parsis, 
Rustami Ardishiri Dinyar, built in Kucha Biyuk, 
one of the villages near Yezd, a house with an 
upper room, slightly above the height to which the 
Parsis used to be limited. He heard that the 
Mussulmans were going to kill him, so he fled by 
night to Tehran. They killed another Parsi, 
Tlrandaz, in mistake for him, but did not destroy 
the house. 

G 



50 BLOOD PRICE OF PARSIS [chap. 

So the great difficulty was not to get the law 
improved, but rather to get it enforced. When 
Manukji was at Yezd, about 1870, two Parsis were 
attacked by two Mussulmans outside the town, and 
one was killed, the other being terribly wounded, 
as they had tried to cut off his head. The 
Governor brought the criminals to Yezd, but did 
nothing to them. Manukji then got leave to take 
them to Tehran. The Prime Minister, however, 
told him that no Mussulman would be killed for a 
Zardushti, or Zoroastrian, and that they would 
only be bastinadoed. About this time Manukji 
enquired whether it was true that the blood-price 
of a Zardushti was to be seven tomans. He got 
back the official reply that it was to be a little 
over. 

The Yezd Parsis have been helped considerably 
by agents from Bombay, who are British subjects, 
and of late years things have slightly improved. 
About 1885, a Seyid, that is, a descendant of 
Muhammad, killed a Zardushti woman in Yezd. 
Ibrahim Qalil Khan took him, and, by order of the 
Zillu's Sultan, Prince Governor of Isfahan, and elder 
brother of the Shah, killed him before daybreak. 
When the Mohammedan mullas heard of it in the 
morning, they gave orders for a general slaughter 



ii] IMPROVEMENT IN CONDITIONS 51 

of the Parsis. Many of the Parsis were injured, 
but none killed. Then in 1899 the Sahamu'l 
Mulk, at the commencement of his governorship of 
Yezd, killed a Mussulman servant of the Mushiru'l 
Mamalik for a criminal assault upon a Zoroastrian 
woman. This man was not a Seyid, which made 
the matter more simple. Just before, when the 
Mushiru'l Mamalik was temporary Governor, 
Isfandiar, the Parsi schoolmaster at Taft, one of 
the large Yezd villages, and Salamat, another 
Parsi, were killed by two lutis (roughs) without 
reason. One of these lutis was a Seyid. Both 
were sent to Tehran, and a mujtahid went up with 
them to ask for their release. The Shah ordered 
the Seyid's release, but the fate of the other is not 
known. That the Seyid was not much intimidated 
is certain, as in the August of 1901, when I was in 
Taft, he used to wander about with other lutis 
quite openly. 

During the last nine or ten years the governors 
in Yezd have been much stronger, and they have, 
generally speaking, been friendly to the Parsis. 
The Parsis are an industrious and intelligent 
people, and they have become in Yezd a wealthy 
community. Also there is an extremely wealthy 
Parsi in Tehran, Arbab Jamshid, who is probably 



52 POSITION OF JEWS [chap. 

more able to influence the Persian Government 
in favour of his countrymen than are the Indian 
Parsis from Bombay. Nowadays no governor who 
wants to remain in Yezd can afford to leave the 
Parsi community out of his calculations. The 
real advance made by the Parsi colony seems to 
date from the second term of government of the 
Jalalu'd Daula, eldest son of the Zillu's Sultan, 
Governor of Isfahan. The Parsis themselves also 
put down a great deal of the improvement in 
their circumstances to the spread of the Behai 
faith, and certainly, although a semi-secret sect, 
the Behals individually plead openly for a general 
religious liberty and toleration. Naturally such 
a movement has been of considerable assistance 
to the Parsis. As an indication of the influence 
of the Parsis, it is interesting to notice that during 
the late Behai massacres, immediately there was 
talk of an attack on the Parsi quarter, the 
Mussulman clergy applied themselves to sup- 
pressing the movement. 

Although the Jews are very much weaker and 
poorer, they have their place in the social organisa- 
tion of the town, and the contempt in which 
they are held does not prevent the Yezdis from 
recognising their right to a kind of citizenship. 



IL ] BOND OF CITIZENSHIP 53 

Their religion of course is held in much greater 
respect than that of the Parsis, for they are people 
of the Book, and although the Persian Shiahs 
granted the Zoroastrians a certain share in this 
status, when they allowed them to continue in 
the country on the same terms as Jews and 
Christians, the ordinary Yezdi of to-day hesitates 
considerably before he allows that Zoroaster was 
in any sense a prophet. 

I myself have met Mussulmans serving in a 
menial capacity in Parsi houses ; I have enter- 
tained Parsis of standing and Mussulmans of 
standing together on public occasions ; and I 
have no hesitation in saying that even the bigoted 
Mussulman recognises the bond of common citizen- 
ship, although it is certainly true that on most 
occasions he prefers the bond of religion. Still, 
a Persian's religious feeling, even when it seems 
to amount to fanatical bigotry, is generally so 
connected with self-interest, that, when it is 
disconnected from thoughts of profit, it is difficult 
to know how much influence it will possess 
with him. 

It is certainly a fact that a year or two ago, 
when an Isfahani Seyid came and preached in the 
Yezd mosques against painted trays, Manchester 



54 FANATICISM ANALYSED [chap. 

cottons, bank-notes, and Bibles, the Yezdi Mussul- 
mans gave him the cold shoulder, and treated 
him as a foreigner who had intruded himself 
into their domestic concerns. 

People were surprised at this happening in the 
city which a few years before had been regarded 
as one of the most fanatical in the whole of Persia. 
As a matter of fact, the so-called fanaticism of 
Yezd was two-thirds of it non-religious in character. 
There was an element of turbulency, produced by 
a series of weak governors ; there was a real 
religious element; and there was an element of 
insularity, utterly unconnected with creed and 
doctrine. In spite of the smallness of the 
Christian colony, which even at present consists 
of only eighteen Europeans, to which may be 
added twenty-two Armenians (the households of 
men in European employment), the people of 
the town which is after all not large, had soon 
become familiarised with this little settlement as 
a Yezd institution. Then the insular spirit came 
to be enlisted on the side of the Ferangis, and, 
the turbulence produced by weak governorship 
being eliminated, there was only the religious 
difficulty left. 

There have only been Europeans in Yezd for 



„.] EUROPEAN COLONY 55 

some twelve years. The early arrivals were a bank 
manager and a merchant's agent. The work of the 
Church Missionary Society has been established 
there for some six years, and the English telegraph 
clerk has been there for about a year. Now all 
the members of the colony have contributed 
something to the life of the town, and all the 
Europeans have worked together with marked 
cordiality and harmony. Both of these things 
have certainly had a great effect in hastening 
the establishment of the colony in the town, and 
in winning for it the support of the Yezdis' insular 
prejudices. The merchants are distinctly glad 
of the bank, and of the resident agent from a 
responsible Manchester firm. The people have 
learnt to value the Medical Mission ; and the 
schools, though they appeal to a smaller class, 
appeal equally strongly. 

Even the directly spiritual work of a Mission 
is granted an established position in the town by 
the natives, if it is partially in connection with 
the Christian community. Having granted a 
community right of residence no Mohammedan 
would deny them the right of religious observance. 
Indeed this would be expected to exist as a 
matter of course. 



56 POSITION OF MISSIONARIES [chap. 

It is quite true that Christian missions in 
Persia do not possess the treaty right to make 
converts from Mohammedanism. At the same 
time, it must be remembered that Persians are 
much more inclined to regard custom than law, 
nor are they used to the accurate observance of 
a fine distinction. All that can be said is that, 
at present, the right of a Christian missionary to 
baptize a Mussulman is in Yezd by no means 
established, but that his right to live and work 
and preach in the town as, primarily, the mujtahid 
of the Ferangis, and secondarily, an accepted 
Yezd teacher, is practically recognised by all. 
This point seems to have been arrived at chiefly 
through the acceptance of the entire European 
colony as unitedly Christian and as a real part 
of the town. Things that have helped us to 
arrive at it have been the usefulness of the various 
branches of work engaged in by the Europeans, 
their general straightforwardness and honesty of 
life, combined with their ready co-operation in 
Christian effort ; also the extreme acceptability 
of the work of the medical missions, and the 
linking of the clerical work with the life of the 
town through the medium of schools. To these 
must be added the smallness of Yezd, which 



ii] POSITION OF MISSIONARIES 57 

makes it impossible for the population consistently 
to ignore or refuse to assimilate any important 
band of workers that can maintain a residence 
at all prolonged within its walls, and the insularity 
which makes it impossible to refuse altogether 
to champion what has become part of the town. 
Also we must not forget the natural proneness 
of the Shiah to religious speculation, and the 
special ferment of religious ideas at present 
prevailing throughout Persia. This, however, is 
a matter that will be dealt with at length, later 
on. 

A curious incident occurred in Yezd not long 
ago, that will perhaps serve to point to the 
extraordinary way in which the Europeans have 
in the mind of the Yezdi become an established 
part of the town population, with rights and 
privileges similar to those possessed by the native 
section of the townsfolk. One of the European 
residents had received a threatening letter from 
a young Mussulman, whom he had dismissed 
from his employ ; and he had paid as little 
attention to the matter as it deserved. It so 
happened that the next day he came to our 
house for a week's visit, I being a clerical 
missionary ; and the dismissed servant then 

H 



58 POSITION OF MISSIONARIES [chap. 

spread the report through the bazaars that his 
master was frightened, and had taken sanctuary 
with his mujtahid, this being a common Mussulman 
custom when danger is apprehended either from 
lutis or from the law. Not only was the report 
believed, but one of the other Europeans was 
obliged to give up a visit which he had intended 
to pay us, as he was a business man, and his 
credit might have been temporarily shaken. 

A similar story is told by Canon Bruce, of an 
experience in Isfahan. Though in some ways 
more curious, it is, however, less convincing with 
regard to the particular moral to which I am 
attempting to point, since the Canon was then 
working largely amongst the Armenian Christians 
of Julia, who are a considerable colony, and 
subjects of the Shah. The Roman Catholic 
Armenian priests, who were also working amongst 
the Armenian Christians, got the chief Mussulman 
mujtahid of Isfahan, of which Julfa is a suburb, 
to summon Canon Bruce to his house. The 
mujtahid, they said, was, after all, the chief 
religious authority in the place, and Canon Bruce 
was as much a heretic in Christianity as the Babis 
were in Islam. This quaint summons was 
actually issued, and the Mussulman mujtahid 



ii.] POSITION OF MISSIONARIES 59 

required Canon Bruce to defend himself against 
the charge of preaching incorrect Christian 
doctrine. This, of course, was an acceptance of 
Canon Bruce's position ; but the acceptance of 
the position of a clerical missionary in a place 
where there were only eight or nine households 
belonging to Christian races, European or 
Armenian, is stranger still. 

The possibility of such a thing ought, however, 
to encourage us with regard to the future of 
missionary work in isolated and apparently bigoted 
Persian towns, and also to make missionaries 
realise the immense value of the co-operation of 
Christian residents, and the necessity of attending 
fully to their spiritual needs. 



CHAPTER III 

Persian Mohammedanism — Mohammed — Founding of Islam — 
Shiahs and Sunnis — Laxity distinguished from infidelity 
— Central doctrines of Islam — The Divine Unity — The 
prophethood — Behai view of the prophethood — The Bab 
— The Behaullah — Behaiism — Its prospects — Islam — 
Predestination — Repentance — Savabs — Eating with 
unbelievers — Charge of pantheism — Effect of Islam on 
character. 

We have seen that the Yezdis have long been 
accustomed to have in their midst professors of 
three distinct religions, the Jewish, the Zoroas- 
trian and the Mohammedan. But as the Jews 
are neither numerous nor influential, and the 
Zoroastrian Parsis, though more numerous than 
the Jews, are nevertheless not more than a tithe 
of the population, the religion that chiefly demands 
our attention is Mohammedanism, which is the 
established faith of Persia. The M ohammedanism 
of Persia is not quite the same as that of India 
or Turkey, and the Persians call themselves Shiahs 

60 



chap, in.] ISLAM IN PERSIA 61 

or nonconformists. In Persia there is one creed 
of nonconformity which is there accepted as 
orthodox, so those professing this creed will for 
the future in these pages be called Shiahs without 
further qualification. 

It must, however, be remembered that the 
name Shiah is not properly confined to this one 
sect, and also that this sect itself, like other non- 
conformist bodies, has always shown a great 
tendency to subdivide. In Persia besides Shiahs, 
that is the more orthodox Shiahs, there has always 
been one other smaller sect of Mohammedans 
attracting general attention. At present the 
dissenting doctrine most widely taught is that 
of the Behais, who have laid hold of the popular 
imagination, partly because of their great stead- 
fastness under the most terrible persecutions, 
partly because of the somewhat popular nature 
of their teaching, but chiefly because Persia is 
now being brought into rather closer touch with 
Europe, and the people as a whole feel that the 
teaching of the Shiah mullas needs to be modified 
if Islam is to be preserved. I think one may 
go further, and say that there is at present in 
Persia a period of enquiry and spiritual awakening, 
which gives a special opportunity, not only to 



62 ISLAM IN PERSIA [chap. 

Mohammedan sectaries, but also to Christian 
missionaries. Later on further allusion will be 
made to these Behais, but we must not forget 
that our first task is not so much the study of 
the complex religious systems of Persia, as the 
analysis of those religious influences to which the 
Yezdi has been subjected. 

The ordinary Yezdi Mussulman is descended 
partly from the original Aryan inhabitants of 
Persia, and partly from their Arabian conquerors : 
but the enormous difference in character that 
exists between him and the purely Aryan Parsi 
is certainly due less to race and more to religion, 
for the jadlds, or converts from Parsiism, often 
develop all the Mussulman characteristics in a few 
generations, without the slightest admixture of 
race. So before attempting to describe the 
character of the people, it will be necessary to 
pay as much attention to the religious ideas 
that have been brought to bear upon them as 
we have already paid to the nature of their 
country and the seclusion of their town life. 
Some aspects of the Yezdi's religion will be left 
to a future chapter, and we must at present 
content ourselves with trying to understand the 
essential nature of Islam, particularly dwelling 



in.] EUROPEAN VIEWS ON ISLAM 63 

on those points of Mohammed's teaching and 
example which seem to have produced most 
impression on the Persian mind. To do this 
we must divest ourselves of all pre-judgments 
of the prophet's life and doctrine, and simply 
study the facts of history, remembering that the 
conception of Islam which is to be found amongst 
the Sunnis of India and Turkey cannot be allowed 
to pass unchallenged, for the Mohammedan world 
is by no means unanimous about it ; and also 
that the well-known European theory, that there 
was a difference in Mohammed's aims and objects 
in Mecca and Medina, and that the Meccan period 
rather than the Medinan indicates the essential 
idea of Mohammedanism, is one which no educated 
Mussulman would for a moment tolerate. As for 
the still more favourable views that have been 
lately brought forward by European authors, I 
can only pass on a story that was told me of an 
educated Mussulman in India who had been 
shown such a treatise. " This gentleman, Sahib," 
he said, as he handed back the volume, 
"appears to know very little about his own 
religion, and absolutely nothing about ours." 

I myself went to Persia with the intention 
of making the most of the good points of the 



64 PARSIISM AND ISLAM [ohap. 

religious systems of the country. With regard 
to the Parsis I was not disappointed. Like many 
other missionaries, I started with the idea that 
I should find these people possessed of a great 
many radically wrong notions about the nature 
and power of God, which were essential to their 
religion. I now believe that I was wrong, and 
I have never heard my right-hand man, Mihraban, 
who is himself a Parsi, and also one of the most 
sincere and earnest Christians whom I have ever 
met, speak one word against the real groundwork 
of Zoroastrianism. In this religion it is not 
unteaching but teaching that is required to lead 
the people to Christ ; but, in Mohammedanism, 
in spite of its greater pretensions, almost every 
apparent truth crumbles into mere truism or 
actual falsity the moment that you try to make 
it the basis of anything practical. Also the more 
I read of the life of Mohammed, the more con- 
vinced I am that the radical rottenness of the 
system is due to his original teaching. Perhaps 
this may be a confession of narrowness, but one 
cannot be broad all round. Unless we are going 
to deny the iniquity and wickedness of modern 
Islam, we shall have to believe that somebody 
is to blame; and, if it is not Mohammed, I 



in.] MOHAMMED 65 

suppose it must be either the mullas or the 
Mussulman laity. I do not know why we should 
expend all our breadth on the big people : I myself 
have some sympathy with the little ones : and I 
firmly believe that the difficulties in the Islam 
of to-day are due rather to the essential wrongness 
of the system than to its corruption by the masses. 

Mohammed was born in Mecca towards the 
end of the sixth century. He was a member of 
the important family who had charge of the 
Ka'aba, which was a heathen temple that the 
Meccans had attempted to make a common 
meeting - ground for the whole of Arabia, by 
including within its limits the idols and symbols 
of worship that were respected by the different 
tribes. Some of these tribes had adopted Chris- 
tianity and Judaism ; so pictures even of Jewish 
and Christian saints were to be found within the 
walls of the Meccan temple. 

The Mussulman historians of Mohammed's life 
tell us that there had been in Arabia, for some 
years before the prophet came forward, a set of 
reformers called Hanifs, who seem to have been 
half political and half religious, but to have been 
all of them convinced that some form of religion, 
purer than that represented by the Ka'aba, was 



66 THE HAXIFS [chap. 

needed to unite Arabia against its common foes. 
Some of these Hanifs ended by adopting Chris- 
tianity or Judaism : others were inclined to the 
adoption of a more essentially national form of 
monotheism, which should retain the Ka aba as 
its centre. The most notable of the latter party 
was Zaid ibn Amr, a man so much admired by 
Mohammed that he declared him a prophet, and 
in other ways professed his complete acceptation 
of his principles and teaching. 

Mohammed by his marriage with Khadija was 
certainly introduced into this set of reformers. 
Waraka ibn Nawfal was one of the most 
prominent Hanifs, and we have indisputable 
evidence that he was one of Khadija's most 
intimate friends, both at the time of her marriage, 
and also at the time when her husband received 
his first revelation. Mohammed himself had been 
from childhood of a hysterical disposition, and 
was subject to fits, during which he saw visions, 
which on recovering consciousness he was able to 
recollect ; consequently while in this company he 
became convinced that he was the expected 
prophet who was to bind Arabia together by a 
politico-religious system. 

In placing himself at the head of the Hanif 



m.] MOHAMMED A POLITICIAN 67 

movement, Mohammed probably gave more 
prominence to the political aspect than had 
most of the former and less successful leaders. 
This is brought out by Koelle in his life of 
Mohammed ; and indeed it is obvious that the 
man who could allow an unbelieving friend, 
even though a close relation, to play the im- 
portant part in the building of his church that 
Abbas played in the second meeting on the 
eminence, was primarily a politician rather than 
a religious reformer : for it was Abbas who on 
that occasion first proposed the oath that may 
almost be called the basis of Islam. A critical 
study of Mohammed's early dealings with the 
Arabians brings us to a similar conclusion. 

Of the other stories collected by Koelle from 
Mussulman sources to prove this point, perhaps 
the most forcible is that of the discussion between 
the prophet, his uncle, Abu Talib, under whose 
protection he was then living, and Abu Jahl. 
Abu Talib called his nephew and said to him, 
" Thou seest the nobles of thy people are 
assembled here to concede to thee certain 
things, and, in return, to receive concessions 
from thee." Mohammed made this reply: 
"Well, then, give me a word whereby the 



68 VEILED PAGANISM [chap. 

Arabs may be governed and the Persians sub- 
jugated." Abu Jahl responded to this request 
in the name of his fellow-elders by saying : " Thou 
shalt have ten words." But Mohammed setting 
him right, and indicating what kind of word in 
his opinion could alone answer the purpose, re- 
joined : " Say, ' There is no God except Allah ! ' 
and renounce what you worship besides Him." 
This story Koelle quotes from Ibn Ishak, the 
earliest and most trustworthy biographer. 

Certainly the movement from paganism to 
monotheism, which took place in Arabia in 
those days, was in itself a fine thing; and it 
was accompanied by much sincerity and religious 
zeal. It is also obvious that Mohammed possessed 
a personality peculiarly attractive to the Arabian, 
and that this, as well as his enthusiasm on the 
subject of his mission, had the effect of attracting 
many to the cause. 

But not only did Mohammed pay much more 
regard to politics than can be possibly excused, 
he also accepted the religious and ethical teaching 
of the Hanifs only in the most superficial manner ; 
and, under the cover of verbal conformity, retained 
as much as possible of the original pagan ideas in 
which he had been reared. The result is that his 



in.] LATITUDINARIANISM 69 

followers are still to be found possessed of what 
seems at first sight to be correct doctrine upon 
fundamentals, and yet are unable to advance by 
its assistance along the path of light and progress. 

The popular idea, that fanatical intolerance 
of all professors of other religions is an essential 
and fundamental principle in Mohammedanism, 
cannot be maintained. The paganism of Mecca 
was distinctly latitudinarian, so Mohammed 
accepted in full the sacred books of the Jews 
and Christians, as would have seemed natural 
to an Arabian of that age, especially to a mono- 
theistic teacher who was closely connected with 
the Ka'aba. This does not mean that he in any 
way apprehended the meaning of Judaism and 
Christianity. The doctrine of the perpetuity 
of the moral law never seems to have entered 
into his mind, even in the most elementary form. 
He wished to say that he had himself received 
a revelation superseding all former ones by the 
mandate of God, and he did not wish to make 
trouble by pronouncing other religions to be 
false, without absolute necessity. His real object 
was to unite the Arabs by a reformed religion, 
and at first he regarded his mission as a purely 
national one. Whatever were his ultimate designs 



70 EARLY FAILURES [chap. 

upon the Jews and Christians in Arabia, he in- 
tentionally conveyed to them the impression that, 
if they recognised him as a prophet to others, he 
would be content without their accepting him 
themselves. Indeed, while he was still at Mecca, 
he was even uncertain whether the idolaters who 
accepted him might not be allowed to retain some 
of their idols as intermediaries between themselves 
and Allah. He went so far on one occasion as 
to actually effect a reconciliation on this basis ; 
but as such a concession must have greatly 
damaged his influence with those who were 
favourably disposed to the Hanif movement, he 
afterwards repudiated the transaction, and declared 
that he had acted under the influence of the devil. 
His work in Mecca was not very successful; and 
the opposition he encountered was so strong that 
he had at last to begin to make attempts to start 
work in some other place, and he was finally 
successful in making a fresh beginning in Medina. 
Here he was able to take advantage of a family 
connection with some of the principal citizens, 
and also of a long-standing rivalry between 
Medina and Mecca. Although the movement 
in Mecca had not been widely successful, 
Mohammed had gathered amongst his followers 



in.] DEVELOPMENTS IN MEDINA 71 

several really prominent men. Consequently, 
the people of Medina, although divided on the 
subject of his prophetic mission, were unanimous 
as to the advisability of receiving him and his 
followers into their town. Settled in Medina, 
Mohammed's fortunes underwent a change. The 
chieftancy of the tribe to which his grandmother 
had belonged fell vacant, and, as most of the 
members of this tribe had become Mussulmans, 
Mohammed had no difficulty in himself becoming 
their chief. Considering himself restrained by 
no preconception or former revelation of the 
moral law, he was able, without dropping for 
one moment his pretensions to prophethood, to 
use every means of fraud and violence which 
seemed conducive to his political end. As Koelle 
has pointed out, there is no reason to suppose 
that his principles in any way changed, but under 
the altered conditions and environment the 
utterly non-ethical theory of revelation held by 
the prophet became more apparent. This is 
perhaps most clearly brought out by his utterly 
unscrupulous dealing with the Jews, and also 
by the story of Zaid and Zainab, in all which 
affairs Mohammed professed himself to be acting 
under Divine direction, nor is it at all obvious 



72 THE SUNNIS [chaf. 

that he did not actually believe it. Finally, 
before his death, he succeeded in establishing his 
religion and political system throughout the 
whole of Arabia. 

Of course it was impossible for a movement 
like this to take place without rival prophets 
appearing in other parts of the country. Two 
of these appeared during Mohammed's lifetime, 
and he thought it best to guard against future 
schisms of a similar kind by declaring himself 
the last of the prophets. Exactly what he 
meant by this is not very clear : if the almost 
universal voice of Islam is to be accepted., he did 
not mean that he was the last divinely appointed 
teacher, for all Mussulmans look forward to the 
coming of a Mehdi or Mahdi, who, together with 
Jesus, the son of Mary, is to appear in the last 
days, and spread the doctrines of Islam through- 
out the world. Orthodox Mussulmans, however, 
always look upon Mohammed as the last great 
sahibi kitab, or book-bearer. 

The ordinary Sunnis, who are the largest and 
best-known Mussulman sect, assert that, as a 
matter of fact, since the time of Mohammed, no 
divinely-appointed teacher has as yet appeared. 
The Khalifs were in their eyes simply appointed 



in.] THE SHIAHS 73 

by the congregation, and the four great writers 
of the sunnat, which is to them the only authori- 
tative commentary upon the doctrines of Islam, 
were only learned and saintly men. Now, they 
hold, these doctrines can only be learnt from 
this book, and from the Quran itself; for the 
mujtahid or high mulla, capable of giving 
authoritative decisions on moot points, no longer 
exists. 

The Shiahs have very different tenets. 
Mohammed according to their teaching was the 
first of a hierarchic dynasty of thirteen, consisting 
of himself and the twelve great Imams, of whom 
the first was Ali, the son-in-law of the prophet, 
and who were all as certainly divinely appointed 
as Mohammed himself. Mohammed is only the 
last great book-bearer, and therefore the founder 
of the present era. The last of the Imams was 
the Mehdi, who according to the Sunnis has not 
yet been born, but according to the Shiahs 
appeared long ago. This man did not die, but 
disappeared, remaining at first accessible to his 
followers through the medium of four successive 
Babs, or gates of knowledge, who were in touch 
with him during his concealment. Like the 
Imams, the Babs came to an end, for the last 

K 



72 THE SUNNIS [chap. 

that he did not actually believe it. Finally, 
before his death, he succeeded in establishing his 
religion and political system throughout the 
whole of Arabia. 

Of course it was impossible for a movement 
like this to take place without rival prophets 
appearing in other parts of the country. Two 
of these appeared during Mohammed's lifetime, 
and he thought it best to guard against future 
schisms of a similar kind by declaring himself 
the last of the prophets. Exactly what he 
meant by this is not very clear: if the almost 
universal voice of Islam is to be accepted, he did 
not mean that he was the last divinely appointed 
teacher, for all Mussulmans look forward to the 
coming of a Mehdi or Mahdi, who, together with 
Jesus, the son of Mary, is to appear in the last 
days, and spread the doctrines of Islam through- 
out the world. Orthodox Mussulmans, however, 
always look upon Mohammed as the last great 
sdhibi kitab, or book-bearer. 

The ordinary Sunnis, who are the largest and 
best-known Mussulman sect, assert that, as a 
matter of fact, since the time of Mohammed, no 
divinely-appointed teacher has as yet appeared. 
The Khalifs were in their eyes simply appointed 



in.] THE SHIAHS 73 

by the congregation, and the four great writers 
of the sunnat, which is to them the only authori- 
tative commentary upon the doctrines of Islam, 
were only learned and saintly men. Now, they 
hold, these doctrines can only be learnt from 
this book, and from the Quran itself; for the 
mujtahid or high mulla, capable of giving 
authoritative decisions on moot points, no longer 
exists. 

The Shiahs have very different tenets. 
Mohammed according to their teaching was the 
first of a hierarchic dynasty of thirteen, consisting 
of himself and the twelve great Imams, of whom 
the first was Ali, the son-in-law of the prophet, 
and who were all as certainly divinely appointed 
as Mohammed himself. Mohammed is only the 
last great book-bearer, and therefore the founder 
of the present era. The last of the Imams was 
the Mehdi, who according to the Sunnis has not 
yet been born, but according to the Shiahs 
appeared long ago. This man did not die, but 
disappeared, remaining at first accessible to his 
followers through the medium of four successive 
Babs, or gates of knowledge, who were in touch 
with him during his concealment. Like the 
Imams, the Babs came to an end, for the last 

K 



74 FREEDOM OF INTERPRETATION [chap. 

of them refused to appoint a successor. All this 
of course is very ancient history. 

The Shiahs have their own traditionists, for 
they reject the sunnat altogether. Between the 
traditions of the Shiahs and the Sunnis there is 
not much to choose : there is a certain amount 
of historical fact embodied in both, and there is 
also a great deal of absolute nonsense. However, 
many otherwise orthodox Shiahs either reject the 
traditions altogether, or interpret them allegori- 
cally. There is more freedom of interpretation 
amongst the Shiahs than amongst the Sunnis : 
indeed many Shiahs believe that some of the 
most objectionable chapters of the Quran describ- 
ing the delights of heaven are entirely parabolic. 
Of course with mujtahids (supposed to be able to 
pronounce authoritatively on moot points) scattered 
all over Persia, the fixity of doctrine that prevails 
amongst Mohammedans of Sunni countries would 
be impossible. 

The tenets of the Shiahs are not derogatory to 
the mission of Mohammed, or to the position of 
the Quran, but they make the solitary figure of 
the prophet stand out much less prominently. 
For instance, if a Persian is told that his religion 
possesses nothing corresponding to the vicarious 



in.] ALI 75 

sacrifice of Christ, he will invariably reply by 
pointing to the martyrdom of the Imam Husain. 
Also the Mehdi, or occult Imam, is not the future, 
but the present ruler of Islam ; and so he is in 
some ways as important a personage as the 
original prophet. Not very long ago the Shah 
of Persia used to pay rent for his palace to the 
Mehdi, the money going to the mujtahids as the 
representatives of the Imam : I do not know 
whether this practice is still continued, but the 
theory on which it was based is certainly not 
extinct. Again there is a common saying that 
the Imam Ali is present in the heart of the true 
believer, but I think it is only regarded by the 
ordinary Yezdi as a poetical expression. The 
point to be noted is that the saying is always 
about Ali, not about Mohammed. Shiahs invoke 
the Imams Ali and Husain very much more 
frequently than they invoke Mohammed ; and 
though the inscription over a Persian mosque 
should be, " Yd Ali, Yd Muhammad" that is, 
" O Ali ! O Mohammed ! " the " Yd Muhammad " 
is often omitted and the " Yd Ali" left to stand 
alone. The excuse is sometimes brought forward 
that Mohammed is too great for constant invoca- 
tion. Considering the way in which the Shiah 



76 INFLUENCE OF MYSTICS [chap. 

uses the name of God, this must, I think, be 
regarded as a mere excuse for a habit due to 
wholly different causes. 

This extreme attachment to the Imams is 
probably due to two things. In the first place, 
there can be no doubt that the cause of Ali and 
his sons was taken up in Persia as an outlet to 
national jealousy, for the Aryan converts were 
not sorry when a pretext occurred for differ- 
entiating themselves from the majority of their 
Arab conquerors. In the Shiah religion the early 
Khalifs, who ruled Islam while the holy Imams 
were still alive, are held up to the bitterest 
execration, and Omar in particular, who, by the 
way, was the conqueror of Persia, takes much 
the same place in the Shiah system that Judas 
Iscariot does in the Christian. 

Secondly, the influence of sects of mystics, 
professedly Mohammedan but having in their 
doctrines a distinctly pantheistic tendency, must 
be remembered. Ancient Persia was full of 
pantheism, and when it became Mussulman the 
inclination towards such teaching still continued, 
for the broader views held by the Shiahs as to 
freedom of interpretation in reading the Quran 
gave a possible status in the country to very 



m.] SHIAHS REALLY MOHAMMEDAN 77 

heretical sects. These Persian mystics often 
preferred to make the Imams, especially Ali, at 
least as prominent in their systems as Mohammed, 
whose teaching was more difficult to bend to 
their purposes ; and although the ordinary Yezdi 
is certainly not a pantheist, they have undoubtedly 
intensified his enthusiasm for the personalities of 
the Imams, and through their poetry they have 
familiarised him with religious expressions of a 
somewhat unorthodox character. This is in some 
ways an advantage to the missionary, but he 
must beware that it does not give him a false 
view of the progress that he is making. 

As to the theory of the divinely appointed 
Imamate it might be urged that the retention 
of the whole glory of the early sainthood for the 
close relations and descendants of the prophet 
is an excess of zeal that Mohammed would have 
greatly approved. However this may be, the 
doctrine is not obviously opposed to Moham- 
medanism. 

The Shiahs are certainly much laxer than the 
Sunnis with regard to some of the commandments 
of the Quran. Painting, and the making of figures 
is considered by the Sunnis to be a violation of the 
law against idolatry. There is, however, a regular 



78 LAXITY [chap. 

school of Persian painting ; and clay models of men, 
animals and demons, as well as rag dolls, are given 
to the children as toys. The protests made by the 
mullas against these things are very faint. They 
are rather louder in their denunciations of all forms 
of music, which amongst orthodox Mohammedans 
is supposed to have no purpose but the exciting of 
the passions. As to the drinking of wine and 
spirits, the avoidance of the regular Mohammedan 
fast in the month of Ramazan, and the omission of 
the prescribed prayers, the Shiah mullas take a 
view which is at least intelligible. To begin with, 
such things do not amount to infidelity unless they 
are done wilfully and consistently. A formal 
acceptation of the whole of the ordinances is 
demanded. There must be no drunkenness in the 
streets, no eating in Ramazan when anybody is 
near unless a legitimate excuse can be brought 
forward, and if prayers have not been said men 
must say that they have said them. Further than 
this external government does not go ; and as a 
matter of fact many irreligious Persians secretly 
drink themselves drunk in their houses, forget to 
say their prayers regularly, and make up what 
would, if true, be valid excuses for not keeping the 
fast in Ramazan. Such people are well aware 



in.] EXAMPLE OF MOHAMMED 79 

that they are liable to punishment, but they also 
know that, unless they prove disloyal to Islam by 
accepting some other faith, they are not in any 
great danger. It is true that every now and again 
the mullas incite the people to join them in 
cleansing the land of infidelity, and on such 
occasions sectaries like the Babis, and those who 
are supposed to sympathise with them, may 
greatly suffer, but those who have been merely lax 
in their observance of Islam are apt to make up 
for their past deficiencies by a peculiar show of zeal. 
It may be asked whether the mullas in Persia 
are justified in making no more persistent efforts 
to enforce Mohammedan law, and whether their 
winking at such irregularities is not in itself 
disloyalty to the system of Islam. Probably it 
would be easy for them to show that they were 
justified by the example of Mohammed himself. 
If Mohammed enforced a much stricter discipline 
in the town where he was himself present — a 
matter which I think is open to doubt — it would 
be almost impossible to maintain that he caused 
such discipline to be enforced among the Arab 
tribes. These tribes were generally accepted 
through the medium of their chief, who usually 
came to Mohammed in person, had a short 



80 ESSENCE OF ISLAM [chap. 

interview with him, part of which was devoted to 
political subjects, and often went back to his tribe 
on the same day. It is true that Mohammed 
made a distinction between hypocrites — munafiqin, 
and true believers, but he generally meant by 
hypocrites people who were not really on his side 
against others, and here the ordinary Shiah is 
unimpeachable. 

The fact is that Islam contains much more than 
an assortment of commandments. Otherwise it 
would never have impressed its adherents in so 
distinct and remarkable a manner with special 
characteristics. The central idea of the religion is 
that we are all under the dominion oi an invisible 
and absolutely powerful God, Who has created all 
things, and has willed and ordained everything 
both good and evil that is to be found in the 
universe. It is true that there is a Shiah dogma 
against the extreme predestinarianism which 
characterises the Sunni creed, but I do not believe 
that it has in the least affected the fatalistic view 
of the ordinary people. In Islam God may be 
called good because it is our duty to accept as good 
whatever He does, and He may also be called 
by other names according to the character of His 
known actions towards us ; but His own nature is 



in] PROPHETS 81 

absolutely different from that of man ; con- 
sequently nothing can be known of His moral 
character beyond the fact of certain explicit 
actions. This God from time to time sends to the 
world prophets, whose duty is to teach mankind 
the doctrine of His unity, the necessity of worship, 
and the necessity of doing what is for the time 
being His will. According to the popular opinion 
there have been a hundred and forty- four thousand 
of these prophets, but of this number only a few 
have been authorised to publish a new code of 
human duty. Those so authorised are known as 
book-bearers, and Adam, Seth, Enoch, Abraham, 
Moses, David, Jesus, and Mohammed were all of 
this class. The Behais add the name of Behau'llah 
after that of Mohammed. These book-bearers are 
always marked by the possession of some sort of 
supernatural powers appealing to the intellect, and 
also, in the case of the latter ones, by the fulfilment 
of signs mentioned by the former prophets. 
Obedience to them is rewarded by various degrees 
of bliss in Heaven, disobedience is punished by 
Hell. The prophet must conform to previous 
revelations in the assertion of God's unity, 
invisibility and omnipotence, but it is not necessary 
that there should be any coherence between the 



82 THE TAUHID [chap. 

directions about human action as set forth in 
successive dispensations, nor is any difference made 
between ceremonial and moral commandments. 

This central doctrine of Mohammedanism 
concerns God, the prophet, man and creation ; 
so we come across it under four names, giving 
the four possible points of view. First of all 
there is the name of tauhid, or assertion of the 
Divine unity. The Mussulman means by this very 
much more than the mere assertion that God is 
a single Being. He includes in it the doctrine 
of the invisibility of God and of His absolutely 
separate nature, and it appears to clash with the 
Christian conception in two important particulars. 
There is an absolute denial of the statement, upon 
which most Christians more or less consciously 
base their belief in the perpetuity and absolute 
nature of the law of human morals, that " in the 
image of God created He man." Consequently 
we shall afterwards find that in Islam there is no 
belief in the permanency of the moral law, for 
nothing is thought by the Mussulman to be 
necessarily permanent except things connected 
with the nature of God ; and as our nature 
differs entirely from that of the Creator the 
law given for it cannot be necessarily permanent. 



in.] THE TAUHID 83 

There is also in reality a fundamental contradic- 
tion of Christian doctrine in the Mohammedan's 
rendering of the statement that God is a single 
Being. This is best explained by a simple illustra- 
tion. Supposing a man were to say, " London is 
one place," it is conceivable that he might mean 
one of two things. Either he might mean that 
the City of London was the only true London, 
and that there was no other part of the town in 
Middlesex or Surrey that ought to be called by 
the same name ; or he might mean that the whole 
of those places which go by the name of the 
County of London are in reality only one place; 
and these two statements are not similar state- 
ments with a slight difference, but they are 
absolutely contradictory. So the Christian says 
there is only one God, by which he means to 
assert the unity of the all-good Creator, the all- 
good Personality Who was revealed as the Son, 
and the all-good Spirit Who is the only source 
of good in the heart. As God to the Christian 
means the All-good, what he needs is a doctrine 
that asserts the essential unity of the All-good 
wherever he finds it. The Christian is of course, 
not a pantheist, but his conception of the one 
God has to be sufficiently inclusive to cover 



84 THE PAIOHAMBABI [chap. 

those Three Who, as he knows, certainly possess 
the attributes of Deity. The Mussulman on the 
other hand does not pretend to know anything 
about the attributes of Deity, excepting that 
God is one, invisible and omnipotent. Con- 
sequently he frames his definition of the Deity 
so as to purposely exclude what the Christian 
with his larger knowledge knows to be the mani- 
festation of the same essence. 

To pass on to the Mussulman's conception of 
his religion as it relates to the prophet. The 
paighamba?% or the bringing of messages from 
the Deity, is in many ways a peculiar idea. 
Mohammed himself had very little notion of 
his message being an advance on what had been 
given before, and of the gradual growth of revela- 
tion he had no conception at all. He was content 
to assert that his teaching was the religion of 
Abraham, a phrase of which he frequently made 
use. It is true that Mussulmans sometimes say 
that parts of God's Word were revealed to former 
paighambars, but that the complete command- 
ment was given to Mohammed, and although 
this is very different from the Christian doctrine 
of the growth of revelation, it might possibly be 
regarded as a substitute for it; but the fact is 



in.] IMPORTED DOCTRINES 85 

that, though it may be traceable to the prophet, 
it is quite foreign to the essential system of 
Islam. We frequently find such foreign ideas 
which have been imported into Islam, occasion- 
ally by Mohammed but more frequently by his 
followers, simply to answer some specific objection, 
or to maintain the superiority of the system over 
all others. Such importations can as a rule be 
easily separated from the essential doctrines of 
Islam, and in most cases they have not affected 
the general character of the religion. This is due 
to the religion as first conceived by Mohammed 
having been clear in its essential points, and it 
is these points rather than the accretions that 
have left such a strong mark upon the body of 
Mussulmans. The paigha?nbari, more than any 
other doctrine or expression of doctrine, brings 
out with intense plainness the fundamental dis- 
tinction between the Mussulman and the Christian, 
that enormous divergence of view regarding the 
moral law which lies at the root of almost all 
their differences in subordinate theories and 
tenets. So when we are discussing the influence 
of Mohammedan ideas upon character, it is well to 
remember that sects which do not hold this theory 
of the paighambari ought to be regarded separately. 



86 SUFIS AND BEHAIS [chap. 

There are in Persia sects which are only 
nominally Mussulman, and which largely owe 
their origin to non-Mohammedan sources. The 
Sufis, for instance, are only half Mohammedan, 
and their philosophy is really pantheistic. Sufis 
are to be found in Yezd, but there are not very 
many serious ones, and the sect has largely lost 
its direct influence in the country. But the Babis, 
of whom the Behai branch is rapidly spreading 
everywhere throughout the Persian towns, have 
been influenced by Sufi ideas to a much greater 
extent than have the orthodox Shiahs, who, we 
agreed, are not pantheistic. Perhaps some 
professing Behals are really very near to the 
Sufis in ideas, but this is not the case with the 
more orthodox, who, though they have modified 
the fundamental doctrines of Mohammedanism 
in such a way as to remove the gulf between 
God and the prophet, have not produced a 
theology which is free from the obvious defects 
of that of Islam. The Behai appears to hold 
that the superior prophet, that is, the book- 
bearer, is in every case an incarnation of the 
Deity, but he goes on to say that there is an 
absolute distinction between the prophet and his 
people ; for the book-bearer is God, and the 



iil] THE BEHAIS 87 

people are not God ; nor are they, so far as I 
can understand, capable of receiving the Spirit of 
God, either from the prophet or directly from 
God Himself. They can only be impressed by 
the prophet as wax is impressed by a seal. 
Whether this doctrine is really Behau'llah's or 
not, it was certainly given to me by men who 
ought to have known the truth about the Behai 
faith. 

The adherents of this sect in Persia are now 
exceedingly numerous, and many people believe 
that in the end the whole country will become 
Behai ; so the question whether the Behais are 
more reliable than the orthodox Shiahs has 
become an important one. Certainly they teach 
a cleaner and purer doctrine on points of ethics ; 
but what Persia needs is not so much a higher 
moral teaching, but rather a higher basis for 
morality. A religion that puts the command- 
ment not to steal on the same level as the 
direction not to stew your dates but to fry them, 
will never produce the high characters that are 
to be found in such communities as the Parsi. It 
would be irreverent to compare such a faith 
with the religion given to us by the Saviour. 

During the late Behai massacre, I had the 



88 PERSECUTION OF BEHAIS [oha*. 

opportunity of discussing what was going on 
with a Behai mubattigh, that is, an authorised 

Belial teacher and missionary. I have no in- 
tention of unnecessarily dwelling on the ghastly 
horrors that were then being perpetrated, but 
a lew details are unavoidable. The Behai sec- 
taries were not at that time being executed 
before the mujtahids, but were being torn in 
pieces by the crowd. What had excited the 
people was not simply religious feeling, but it 
was very largely the statement by the clerical 
authorities that the goods of the Behais were 
"lawful," that is, that any one might plunder 
them who cared to do so. The attacks were 
often made by men who had lived for a long 
while in close companionship with the Behais. 
knowing them all the time to be members of 
the sect, and yet consorting and eating with 
them freely. Holes were bored in the heads 
of some of these poor wretches with awls, oil 
was then poured into the hole and lighted. Other 
forms of torture were used about which one 
cannot write. Women and children were very 
seldom actually killed, but were fearfully ill- 
treated, and sometimes left to die of starvation. 
It was reported that in one of the villages Babi 



in] BEHAI VIEWS ON MORALS 89 

children died within full sight of the villagers, 
after waiting for days under the trees where 
their murdered parents had left them. 

The Behai muballigh with whom I was talking 
was certainly well aware, in a general way, of 
what was going on ; yet I could not get him to 
see that these things, done in the name of religion 
to his own sect, were in themselves wrong, and 
that man's eyes had been opened, or could be 
opened, to their essential wrongness. Of course 
he maintained that the action of the Mussulmans 
was evil, but his reason was that, in the first 
place, those persecuted were spiritually right, 
and, in the second place, even had they not been 
so, the last book-bearer, the Behau'llah, had 
promulgated a Divine commandment that there 
was to be no religious persecution. I then asked 
him if such persecution could again become lawful 
if another book-bearer appeared and promulgated 
a different commandment. He answered that it 
was impossible for another book-bearer to appear 
for a long period. I then asked him if he would 
accept a new book-bearer, who, besides satisfying 
the other conditions, exhibited a text in one 
of the previously received Scriptures, stating 
that one day in God's sight is as a thousand 

M 



90 UNRELIABILITY OF BEHAIS [ohap. 

years. He replied that, if such a verse could 
be shown, and the other conditions were satisfied, 
such a man might be accepted to-morrow, even 
although he taught a doctrine similar to that 
of Mohammed about religious persecution and 
other matters of the same sort. 

Now there are three points to be noted by 
those who expect great things of the Benin move- 
ment. First of all, the Behais accept the whole 
of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, which, 
of course, include a verse of the kind above 
mentioned. Secondly, they have already had 
three book-bearers ; the Bab, who was the original 
founder of the Babi sects, and who not only 
exhibited a Divine book, but also claimed to be 
the resurrection of Mohammed in the same way 
that Mohammed was the resurrection of Jesus ; 
Subhi Azal, whom for some years they recognised 
as the Bab's successor; and lastly, Behau'llah, 
whom the Behais now hold to be the only major 
prophet of the three. Thirdly, the Behais, in 
attempting to prove that the Bab was a lesser 
prophet and a mere forerunner of the Behau'llah, 
and also that Subhi Azal was never a really 
great personage, have seriously falsified their 
records. The reader who desires further informa- 



in] THE BAB 91 

tion on this subject cannot do better than consult 
Professor E. G. Browne's admirable introduction 
to his translation of the Tdrikhi Jadid. 

The Bab, who came forward rather less than 
a century ago, was a young Shirazi Persian, a 
Seyid of the merchant class, whose real name 
was Ali Mohammed. The Shaikhi sect were at 
that time predicting the appearance of a great 
religious leader, and the Bab came forward claim- 
ing to be this prophet. He called himself the 
Bab, or Gate of Knowledge, and was at first 
supposed by his followers to be the Gate of 
Access to the Mehdi ; but he seems to have used 
these terms in a very broad and allegorical fashion, 
and to have held the doctrine of the essential 
unity of all book - bearers. He later declared 
himself to be the Mehdi, and also to be the Gate 
of Access to One Whom God should manifest. 

The movement caused a great deal of fighting 
in Persia, and though the Babis were acting on 
the defensive, there is very little doubt that they 
had harboured political designs. The Bab, how- 
ever, differs from Mohammed in having been, 
so far as we can judge, primarily a religious 
reformer, and having done his best to make the 
movement as spiritual as possible. His followers 



92 BEHAI ATTITUDE TOWARDS BIBLE [chap. 

were treated with the most barbarous severity, 
and he himself was after a few years put to 
death. Before this he appointed Subhi Azal, 
one of his followers, to be his successor, and for 
a few years this man was received as " He Whom 
God should manifest." Later on, Subhi Azal's 
half-brother, the Behau'llah, managed to get 
himself accepted as head of the sect. Many of 
the followers of Subhi Azal were assassinated, 
and the sect was re- organised with some important 
differences. It now purports to be absolutely 
non-political, and the teaching has become more 
simple and practical. The Behais are anxious 
to retain the use of the Quran, so as to preserve 
their claim to toleration, although they imagine 
that the law of the Quran no longer stands, its 
place having been taken by a later revelation. 
Partially to avoid inconsistency in this matter, 
and partially to keep before the minds of the 
Mussulmans the possibility of one really divine 
book being replaced by another, they encourage 
the reading of all the Scripture considered divine 
by Mohammedans, that is, not only the Quran, 
but also the whole of the Christian Bible, nor 
do they generally call the authenticity of the 
extant version in question. 



in] AN ADAPTED ISLAM 93 

Behaiism is obviously an attempt to adapt 
Islam to the exigencies of modern circumstances, 
taking advantage of the special tenets of the 
Shiahs. The North of Persia is being at present 
rapidly overrun by Russia, and even in the South 
the Persian feels that he is on the eve of political 
changes. The Behais consider that they have 
a creed which enables them to meet the foreigner 
without continual jar and offence. In this they 
are right, for they do not veil their women, they 
do not consider infidels unclean, and they go 
further than does the broadest Shiah in the matter 
of respect to other forms of faith. Some orthodox 
Shiahs accept the Jewish and Christian Scriptures 
as they stand, without pressing the story that 
the Jews and Christians altered their books to 
suit their own purposes. Almost all Persians are 
open to argument on this point, though most will 
say that to those possessed of the Quran the 
perusal of former Scriptures is unnecessary. But 
the Behais hold that, unless started by a real 
prophet, no religion can possibly survive, and 
consequently they allow to even the grossest 
forms of idolatry a divine origin, and the posses- 
sion of a certain substratum of truth. 

In Persia there can never have been that 



94 PREPARATION FOR GOSPEL [chap. 

almost impenetrable wall of dogmatic assertion 
and self-assurance which seems to exist in many 
Sunni lands, but something of the kind is to be 
found throughout Islam. As the self-satisfaction 
of the Behai is almost as strong as that of the 
Sunni, and infinitely stronger than that of the 
Shiah, it seems a paradox to say that Babiism 
has given us in Persia a prepared soil for missionary 
work. The fact is that the field prepared is not 
amongst the Babis themselves, but amongst the 
Shiahs who have been in touch with Babis, and 
are nevertheless unconvinced. Consequently it 
is a field which cannot be expected to last for 
ever, but of which advantage ought to be taken 
immediately, for it is very seldom that we find 
so exceptional an opportunity given to us for 
attacking Mohammedanism on its own ground. 

In Yezd the Behais have attached to them- 
selves many of the most enlightened Mussulmans. 
The teaching of the sect about behaviour and 
practice is not bad, though, in matters connected 
with women, there is an inclination to adopt 
customs that are rather dangerous considering 
the low moral atmosphere. The tendency to 
minimise the miraculous element in religion is 
not altogether wholesome, and some professing 



in.] BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION 95 

Babis are inclined to a rather crude rationalism, 
the end of which it is difficult to foresee. This 
tendency is perhaps fostered by the peculiar 
manner of interpreting the sacred books, a method 
difficult to describe, as it fluctuates between the 
wildest flights of metaphor, and the lowest depths 
of puerile literalism, the balance between the 
two being decided by a very determined pre- 
conception of what ought to be. To give a 
specimen of this, it was seriously urged in a Behai 
pamphlet, reviewed and summarised by the Rev. 
W. A. Rice in the Church Missionary Intelligencer, 
that Isaiah xxv. 6-9, where God is described as 
making "unto all people a feast of fat things, a 
feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of 
marrow, of wines on the lees well refined," refers 
to the entertaining of visitors by Behau'llah during 
his banishment at Acre. The " wines on the lees 
well refined " are the tea, which Persians generally 
pour through a small strainer. The passage also 
refers to the fact that God "will swallow up 
death in victory," and will "wipe away all tears 
from off all faces ; and the rebuke of His people 
shall He take away from off all the earth." To 
this part only a spiritual interpretation is given. 
I tried before I left Persia to find out the 



96 ISLAM [chap. 

impression that the sect had made upon other 
Europeans, so as not to give a one-sided opinion 
about them. Personally, I came to the conclusion 
that, in matters even remotely connected with 
religion, they were less truthful than the ordinary 
Shiah, but that in the ordinary affairs of life 
they were a trifle more reliable. Some other 
missionaries had a lower opinion of their truthful- 
ness, and most of those who had had business 
dealings with them considered that they were 
not more trustworthy than ordinary Mussulmans. 
My conclusion is that, though they may succeed 
in establishing their creed in Persia, and may 
even make the Persians more easy to deal with, 
they will not greatly alter the moral character 
of the people. They have not done so hitherto, 
and an examination of their faith shows that 
they cling, in the main, to the Mussulman theory 
of the jpaighambari, or at any rate have not 
changed it for a doctrine which gives a man more 
cogent reasons for adhering to an approved line 
of conduct in times of difficulty. 

The name given in Mohammed's system to 
the state of the true believer is Islam, which 
means " Resignation to God." By this the 
Mussulman seems to understand that he must 



in.] TAQDIR 97 

not criticise the prophet, whatever he may do 
or teach, and that in the same way he must 
accept everything that happens as the will of 
God. A waiving of personal responsibility, and 
an acceptance of all occurrences as the Divine 
intention, is to the Persian an undoubted virtue. 
The steadfast pursuit of a purpose which has been 
thwarted will often appear to him actually vicious, 
although such persistency might be justified in 
his eyes by its success, which would prove it to 
have been in harmony with God's will. 

The word which expresses the duty of the 
believer being Islam, or resignation, the corre- 
sponding word used by the Mussulman to describe 
his theory of the course of events is taqdir, or 
predestination. There is, as I have said, in Shiah 
dogma an attempt to modify the extreme pre- 
destinarian doctrines of the Sunni. But these 
doctrines are so much an integral part of Moham- 
medanism that it is impossible for the Mussulman, 
Shiah or otherwise, to be anything but a gross 
fatalist. This then completes the list of names 
under which the essential and fundamental con- 
ceptions of Islam are taught, Tauhid, Paighambari, 
Islam, and Taqdir. 

There are also in Mohammedanism certain 

N 



98 FORGIVENESS OF SINS [chap. 

other doctrines which seem to be part of the 
system, but which are not quite so fundamental as 
those that have been stated. Some of these are 
not quite plain : it is very difficult, for instance, to 
understand what was Mohammed's teaching on the 
forgiveness of sins, and there is great confusion of 
thought on this point amongst his followers. 
Certainly an infidel becoming a Mussulman has his 
sins forgiven, though he does not expect to receive 
any peculiar strength for the future, but only a 
direction as to what God wants him to do and to 
avoid. After this the motives of his actions will 
be khauf u jizd, that is to say, the fear of Hell and 
the expectation of Heaven. He will have to be 
punished in Hell for his sins according to their 
assessed value, unless he has previously wiped them 
out, either by savabs, that is, by works of merit, or 
by repentance. Repentance of a real kind is 
supposed to have a certain value, though it is hard 
to state exactly what that value is. Formal 
repentance, which does not in the mind of the 
common Persian necessarily involve the giving up 
of such fruits of sin as stolen articles, has also a 
certain value. But the most efficient way of 
atoning for sin is by savabs. Finally no 
Mussulman, at any rate among the Shiahs, would 



in.] SAVABS 99 

consider it justifiable to hold himself free from the 
fear of Hell. 

Punishment in Hell according to the 
Mussulman idea is not necessarily everlasting, for 
most of the Persians believe that, by the inter- 
cession of Mohammed, all his people will finally 
get to Heaven. But in Heaven there are many 
grades, and the position of the individual will be 
determined by the relative weight of his savabs 
and sins. Properly, a savab is a work of 
supererogation considered as possessing merit ; but 
the word is often used less exactly for any action 
which will be put to the account of a man as a 
good deed. I believe that Persian Mohammedans 
when using this word almost universally accept 
the view that the performance of a certain number 
of approved actions makes it less necessary to 
adhere to the path of duty. Also, to put it 
crudely, the good deed is not regarded as the gift 
of God to man, but as the gift of man to God ; 
and I feel convinced that the word is bound up 
with the assumption that Heaven-seeking or the 
fear of Hell are the only possible motives for right 
behaviour. 

The ordinary Yezdi has no doubt that a non- 
Mussulman can do a savab, especially if he benefits 

LOfG 



100 SAVABS [chap. 

a Mussulman ; and the belief that such a man if he 
was a Jew or a Christian, could get to Heaven, 
would not be considered very heretical. 1 Some 
Yezdis might allow that idolaters could get to 
Heaven by savabs, but this would be considered a 
more dangerous doctrine. The fact is that there 
was in Mohammed's essential teaching a very large 
amount of latitudinarianism, and this comes out in 
the common ideas of Mussulmans who are not 
repressed by a system such as that of the Sunnis. 

The merit of an action is decided by the 
intention of the doer and not by its result. This 
is brought out by a native story, framed for the 
purpose. 

" One day a traveller came to a well, where he 
dismounted, fastened his animal to a pin, and 
satisfied his thirst. As he returned to his animal 
it occurred to him that it would be a savab to 
leave the pin behind, for other travellers who 
might wish to tether their beasts. The next to 
arrive at the well was a man on foot, who, being 
very thirsty and in a hurry, fell over the pin. 

1 I was informed, however, by Dr Griffith that the Mussulmans of 
Kirman welcomed his coming and the work of the medical mission on 
the ground that his savabs, being the savabs of an infidel, would be 
credited not to him but to the account of the Mohammedans of the 
town, who stood rather sorely in need of them. 



in.] SAVABS 101 

This man threw the pin down the well, so as to 
prevent any one else from having a similar 
accident. A learned man in the neighbourhood 
was asked which of the two did the savab, the man 
who left the pin or the man who threw it away. 
He answered, " Both, for their intentions were 
equally good." 

That there is truth in this teaching is obvious, 
but the story ignores the necessity of taking 
thought and pains, so that one's impulses may not 
do more harm than good. This is always ignored 
in Persia, and I think I am right in putting it 
down to the teaching connected with the use of 
the word. Large sums of money are given for the 
poor, and yet the alleviation of poverty is very 
small ; and the same sort of thing happens in other 
branches of philanthropy. The gift once given, 
the donor loses all interest in its bestowal ; funds 
are squandered on the most paltry objects, and the 
general effect seems to be that money given in this 
way becomes money wasted. Charity is also 
much vitiated in Persia by unpractical, and in 
many cases superstitious ideas. To give alms to a 
Seyid is a greater savab than to help an ordinary 
beggar, so a large proportion of the philanthropy of 
Persia goes to support a begging class, who are in 



102 SAVAB8 [chap. 

every way a burden, and in some ways a danger 
to society. The Seyids are also more lightly 
punished, and consider themselves outside the 
reach of the very small amount of justice that 
exists. Again, it is more meritorious to give on 
a Thursday, as the eve of the Friday holiday, or 
on the eve of a feast, than on an ordinary day ; 
and lastly, the people expect that they will amass 
more merit by giving microscopic sums to all 
comers than by giving more effective assistance 
to a limited number. 

As I have said, the doctrine connected with 
savabs acknowledges only two motives of 
action, the fear of punishment and the expecta- 
tion of reward, and it is not allowed that any 
other motive can possibly exist. Persian women 
are very inquisitive, and one day some of them 
were questioning the ladies of the Yezd mission 
as to what they ate for breakfast. When it tran- 
spired that the others ate eggs and one did not, 
the remark was immediately made, " You see she 
is trying to get a higher place in Heaven." At 
another time when my wife was trying to explain 
to some women that we do not look to works of 
merit to secure salvation, she was met by the 
answer, " But the Hakim Khartum (lady doctor) 



in.] SAVABS 103 

does ; or why should she have taken all that 
trouhle about the Seyid's wife when she was 
ill ? " 

Shiahs often consider that by letting others 
do a savab for them they confer a favour greater 
than they themselves receive. One might imagine 
that this would only apply to benefactors who 
agreed with their religious notions ; but even if 
you can convince a Shiah that you do not believe 
in the possibility of winning Heaven by savabs, he 
will reply, very logically, that your want of faith 
does not prevent the fact being true, and that 
it is absurd to expect him to be grateful because 
of your unbelief in facts. I remember trying to 
make a very badly-behaved youngster, who was 
in the school under my charge, see that we had 
some reason to expect more gratitude from him, 
as we had really taken great trouble with him, 
and Christians did not think it necessary to do 
such things for the sake of their future welfare. 
His answer was that if we did not consider that 
savabs were necessary Mussulmans did. 

Savabs are not necessarily good actions, but 
almost all actions which are directly kind are 
included in the term. So although the doctrine 
connected with savabs is not in every way a good 



104 SA VABS [chap. 

thing, it still has a certain value. Of course it is 
true that men who are anxious to do big savabs 
in order to wipe off the sins of very evil lives 
generally choose non-ethical ones. During the 
late Babi massacre a soldier found a Yezdi who 
was dragging about another man, and trying to 
make out whether he was really a Belial. " You 
see," he said, " I have been a wicked man all my 
life, and have never said my prayers or done any 
other savabs, so, unless 1 can do a big savab, I 
shall certainly go to Hell. If this man is a Babi, 
I mustn't let him go, for if I kill an infidel of 
course I shall go straight to Heaven." Never- 
theless the ordinary savab is a kind action, and 
in the idea of their efficacy we get something 
almost corresponding to a moral principle. Some- 
times indeed the Persian's conception of a work 
of merit tends to correct and check the worse 
commandments of his code. For instance, 
although the killing of a Babi as an infidel 
may be considered a savab, the saving of a fife, 
even if it is the life of the same Babi, may also 
be held a meritorious act of a different kind. 

That the Persian's notions as to what con- 
stitutes an act of merit are a saving clause in 
his religion I have no doubt at all. I am, how- 



in] ORIGIN OF SHIAH BELIEFS 105 

ever, not quite certain whether this saving clause 
properly belongs to Mohammedanism, for it bears 
on the face of it a family likeness to the doctrines 
of superior systems, and it will not quite fit into 
the system of Islam. The rest of the Shiah ideas 
about Heaven, Hell, the efficacy of savabs, and 
repentance, seem to be really Mussulman, though 
everything is not quite coherent. Perhaps the 
fact is that in these points Mohammed was an 
opportunist, and taught any doctrine which he 
thought would make people obedient to his law. 
He was careful not to expect too much, and, 
while keeping his followers as long as possible in 
a state of uncertainty as to their salvation, he 
tried never to shut the door on hope. So it is 
questionable whether either the teaching of the 
Quran, or the ideas of the Persians on these 
subjects, could possibly be presented in a quite 
consistent form. 

I have tried to enumerate in this chapter just 
those doctrines which form the original philosophy 
or theology upon which everything in Islam rests, 
and to show that not only does the ordinary Shiah 
Yezdi accept them in toto, but that, with the one 
small exception that has been stated, all his funda- 
mental beliefs are to be found in this category. 

o 



106 TEMPORARY MARRIAGES [chap. 

Of course these ideas are a much more serious 
part of a religion than is a code of command- 
ments that is not believed to be permanent. 
Indeed it is quite possible that greater laxity in 
the observance of such a code may be due to a 
juster appreciation of the notions with which it 
was promulgated. To say that Persia has not 
been greatly influenced by Mohammedanism 
because the Persians get drunk in their houses, 
is shallow criticism. It is still shallower to 
imagine that the fact that some of the Shiah 
ordinances are in themselves laxer than the Sunni 
makes it plain that Persians are less Mussulman 
than Turks and Indians. 

For instance, the Shiahs have a custom of 
temporary marriages, according to which it is 
lawful for a man, besides the four regular wives 
allowed by Islam, to have as many inferior wives 
as he likes, contracting these marriages for any 
length of time he pleases, from a few days upwards. 
There is, however, a legal fiction by which these 
women are supposed to be lowered to the rank 
of slaves, which ought to entirely remove the 
Sunni objection ; for, unless it can be proved 
that the temporary ownership of a slave is im- 
possible, it is very difficult to understand why 



in.] ATTITUDE TO NON-MUSSULMANS 107 

this evasion should not be considered quite 
legitimate according to the undoubted principles 
of Mohammedanism. That there is a certain 
amount of latitudinarianism in Shiah Islam is 
indisputable, but so there is in the whole of 
Mohammed's teaching and practice. 

As a matter of fact his attitude towards Jews 
and Christians, and even towards the idolaters, 
was largely opportunist. At one time he made 
leagues with the Jews, promising that they 
should not be disturbed in their religion ; at 
other times he picked quarrels with them, and 
put every one who would not accept Islam to 
the sword. This latitudinarianism has found its 
way into the Quran itself, where a verse is to 
be found telling Mohammedans that they may 
eat the food of "the people of the book," that 
is, of the people holding religions whose origin 
he recognised as divine. The strict Shiahs in 
Yezd interpret this as meaning dry food. They 
make a great distinction between wet and dry ; 
only a few years ago it was dangerous for an 
Armenian Christian to leave his suburb and go 
into the bazaars in Isfahan on a wet day. "A 
wet dog is worse than a dry dog." Nevertheless, 
there are great differences of opinion on this 



108 SHIAHS AND PANTHEISM [chap. 

point, and most non-clerical Shiahs would take 
tea at any European's house. There was a 
Shiah woman who used to freely take tea at 
the house of a Christian lady, the lady herself 
making it and pouring it out, but she refused 
to use the tea-glasses used in the same house 
by Babi women. Another Shiah lent a donkey 
for a Christian lady, but told her that he could 
not use it again if she allowed her Parsi nurse 
to ride upon it. And yet it is more easy to 
get the Mussulmans to eat food with the Parsis 
than with the Jews, whose religion ranks higher 
than Zoroastrianism in the popular regard, 
though they themselves are specially despised 
by the Mohammedans. This curious mixture of 
breadth and bigotry is only explicable on the 
assumption that the Shiah's main ideal is exactly 
that opportunist position which was taken up 
by Mohammed during his lifetime. 

Perhaps we ought not to leave this subject 
without discussing rather more fully the assertion 
which has been made about the Persian Shiahs, 
that they have changed the doctrine of the unity 
of God for a loose pantheism, and have dethroned 
the Quran for the utterance of Sufi poets. That 
the Persians as a race have an extreme veneration 



in.] DISREGARD OF CONTRADICTION 109 

for Sufi poetry, which contains expressions of 
questionable orthodoxy, cannot well be called 
in question ; but before discussing the more 
serious part of the allegation, it is necessary to 
thoroughly understand about whom it is stated ; 
for there are small Shiah sects, of whom it is 
quite true that they are only half Mussulman, 
but these are very different from the sect which 
is at present predominant in Persia, and which 
in Yezd at any rate does not appear to lack 
veneration for the Quran. One point, however, 
must be granted, and that is, that all Persian 
Mussulmans, orthodox or otherwise, are often 
led to express acquiescence in a statement which 
appears to be in itself correct, however opposed 
it may be to the general tenor of their other 
beliefs. The fact is that they do not easily see 
a contradiction, and this has made it possible for 
the Shiah to accept poetry which he would other- 
wise have absolutely rejected. I do not myself 
know a single Christian doctrine to which I could 
not get most Shiahs to agree, if I was careful to 
state it in language with which they were familiar, 
and not to dwell on its divergence from the 
Mussulman idea. 

But doctrines so allowed to pass, whether 



110 SYSTEM OF ISLAM [chap. 

Christian or Sufi, would have no strength against 
the system of Islam, which most Yezdis have 
grasped as an integral whole. The general plan 
of Mussulman doctrine, constructed as it was for 
inhabitants of a desert, is peculiarly comprehen- 
sible to people like the Yezdis, who are accustomed 
to isolated objects and ideas, and are slow at 
grasping a too elaborately connected argument. 
For the system of Islam is not elaborately con- 
nected : that there is a general consistency in it, 
is true, but the consistency is like that of a 
certain housewife's accounts, in which a large 
number of items were entered under the heading 
of "forgets." The accounts were true and 
accurate, but they were not highly instructive. 
Similarly in Islam a large variety of command- 
ments have been labelled, " commandments for 
the age of Moses," or " commandments for the 
age of Mohammed," and the doctrine of the 
paighambari is so formulated as to make further 
systematisation unnecessary. This being a scheme 
of arrangement which a Persian can understand, 
it has laid hold of his mind to a peculiar degree. 
Phrases and expressions that are opposed to it, 
he will often accept, but their influence on his 
behaviour is exceedingly small. The thing which 



in.] SHIAH CHARACTER 111 

dominates him, and will, unless explicitly resisted 
and combated, always continue to dominate him, 
is Islam and Islam alone. 

Before going on to discuss in another chapter 
some other important aspects of the Yezdi's 
religion, it will be well to consider how the 
whole Mussulman theory has affected his character. 
First of all, it has made him even more disposed 
to unconnected and disjunctive views of life than 
he would otherwise have been. This becomes 
plain when we compare him with his fellow- 
townsmen who have been in touch with other 
religions. Secondly, we find that he possesses 
a very low view of the value of morality, which 
in Mohammedanism has no unique place, but is 
only one of the ways of attaining salvation. 
Another way is through accuracy of religious 
observance, and, when a Persian takes to this, 
he generally abandons any attempt to live straight. 
Residents in the country are well aware of this, 
and are justly inclined to distrust a man who is 
very particular about his prayers and ceremonial 
duties. 

I must ask the reader to pardon me if I have 
said in this chapter anything which appears dis- 
respectful to Mohammedanism. In trying to 



112 VIEW OF MOHAMMED [chap. 

record facts and to correctly weigh impressions, 
one cannot avoid frankly stating what has been 
forcibly brought before both mind and eyes, even 
though the things stated may not be exactly 
what they are expected to be. The fact is that 
Islam has ruined Persia ; and it is not fair to the 
real character of the people to underrate the effect 
that this religion has produced on them. As to 
Mohammed, I believe that I have stated nothing 
about him which is not a matter of common 
knowledge. Doubtless the author who starts 
with the determination to write an interesting 
and sympathetic book, will be able, by selecting 
his incidents, to convey a more favourable im- 
pression, just as a criminal lawyer may be able 
to find much in favour of even a guilty client ; 
but the historical critic who starts on the 
examination of Mohammed's history without any 
pre-judgment must necessarily find it difficult not 
to come to a very unfavourable conclusion. The 
Arabian prophet headed a monotheistic movement 
which had started without him, and which would 
have probably suceeded to a very large extent 
whether he had touched it or not, and to this 
movement he did a great deal of damage without 
making any serious ethical contribution. It may 



in.] PARSIISM 113 

be readily admitted that Mohammed was an 
attractive person, and that he possessed other 
great gifts, one of which was unusual eloquence. 
He seems to have been an enthusiast who in 
his worst moments absolutely believed in himself 
and in his mission, and there is no doubt that 
he drew into his company, both by persuasion 
and violence, men who might have looked askance 
at a more spiritual leader. But those who want 
to know what Islam does for a people who accept 
it had better compare the Yezdi Mussulman with 
the Yezdi Parsi. The Parsis have a curious and 
interesting religion, the main point of which 
seems to be the belief that God has created all 
things of the four elements, and that He there- 
fore expects from all His creatures a reverential 
and sympathetic treatment of one another. The 
religion is Gospelless, it is coated over with gross 
superstitions, and it has the very great defect of 
being so elementary in its teaching that there is a 
strong tendency amongst its professors to deny 
revelation altogether, and to become simply 
rationalists. For all this the Zoroastrian Parsi 
possesses, as a rule, a strong moral character, 
which, when he becomes a Mohammedan, is almost 
always lost in a few generations. Unfortunately, 



114 PARSIISM [chap. m. 

the Behai movement is just now attracting a large 
number of Zoroastrians, and is becoming a serious 
danger ; for the Behai, whatever he may say to the 
contrary, is really a Mussulman, and his system, 
in which opportunism takes the place of the 
doctrine of the growth of the moral law, retains 
most of the more serious defects of Islam. How- 
ever, as the majority of the Yezdi Parsis are not 
likely to become Behals, it is a matter for 
congratulation that any European power that 
may have to solve the problem of establishing 
good government in Southern Persia will find 
ready to hand a considerable community of this 
intelligent and interesting people in at least one 
of the Persian towns. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Results of Islam — Untruthfulness — Superstitions — Pilgrim- 
ages — Divining — Jins and dim — The evil eye — Trivial 
commandments — Entertainments — Islam includes rather 
than controls the life — Two purposes better than one — 
Ceremonial uncleanness. 

It is now necessary for us to touch on some 
aspects of Mohammedanism in Yezd with which 
it was impossible to deal fully while sketching 
the essential system. In the last chapter we 
were primarily dealing with the religious ideas 
that had been brought to bear upon the country 
as influences, but in this chapter we shall speak 
rather more of their results. First of all, I should 
like to give two stories. I give the two, because 
one is the account of a conversation which I had 
with a man who was not an orthodox Shiah ; and, 
although I fancy I have heard similar remarks 
made by men whose orthodoxy was unimpeach- 
able, it is well to be on the safe side. I had been 

115 



116 ISLAM NON-ETHICAL [chap. 

challenged to give my reasons for preferring 
Christianity to Mohammedanism, and in reply 
I gave an account of a conversation I had had with 
another Mohammedan only a day or two before. 
I had been trying to show him that lying was 
a sin, and he had replied to me : " It's all very 
well for Ferangis to say that ; but the fact is 
that they can't tell lies, and we can." I quoted 
this story simply as bringing out very forcibly 
a common Persian idea, for Persians trust 
Ferangis implicitly, not because they respect 
them, but because they believe they have a 
constitutional difficulty in telling lies. Having 
quoted it, I went on to say that as we all 
acknowledged in theory that truth-telling was 
right, it was reasonable to infer that a religion 
which had produced a mental constitution 
supposed to be incapable of falsehood, was better 
than a religion which had produced the exact 
contrary. The answer of the Mohammedan was 
that truth- speaking and honesty had nothing to 
do with religion, but were purely a matter of 
climate. " In that case," I said, " the people of 
Persia ought to speak the truth very well, for one 
of the Greek historians who lived before the 
Mohammedan era declared that the Persians were 



iv.] ISLAM NON-ETHICAL 117 

famous for speaking the truth." " But who does 
not know," said the Mohammedan, "that the 
climate of a country changes entirely every two 
thousand years ? " 

At another time a Mohammedan of undoubted 
orthodoxy was answering a similar position, only 
he was trying to explain away not only the 
difference in honesty, but also in other matters. 
He said : " These facts cannot be denied, but 
they prove the truth of Islam, and not its falsity. 
If you find that thieves have broken the doors 
and windows of a house, do you not conclude that 
there is something worth stealing inside ? " I have 
reason to believe that this is a well-known retort, 
for other Europeans in other parts of Persia have 
been met by it. It is therefore well worth ex- 
amination. I myself find in it two assumptions 
which seem to me to be peculiar features of Islam. 
First there is the assumption that the possession 
of the treasure gives no safety to the doors and 
windows : that is to say that the possession of 
true religion does not in any way assist the 
keeping of God's commandments. The fact is 
that Mohammed's commandment is not expected 
to be a source of spiritual strength, but only a 
set of orders. Then there is the equally un- 



118 SUPERSTITIOUSNESS [chap. 

Christian assumption that the keeping of the 
moral commandments of God is in no sense the 
treasure, but something entirely extraneous to it, 
which is not essential to the state of the treasure- 
holder. These two assumptions are to be found 
running through the whole of Persian Islam, and 
producing the most extraordinary results. Very 
few Mohammedans will hesitate to acknowledge 
the low state of Mussulman morality as opposed 
to that of the Armenians, or even of the Parsis, 
whom they regard as little better than idolaters. 
If a Mussulman of the teacher class has anything 
to gain by confessing or making it plain to an 
infidel that he has been guilty of gross sin, he 
will not consider that he has in the least forfeited 
his claim to a superior position by doing so. 

Of course being non-ethical the religion 
becomes superstitious. The Mohammedan con- 
siders that there is no known principle by which 
the commands of the Deity can be connected and 
understood, consequently he admits actions in his 
religious code which we should regard as ridiculous. 
The whole theory of Mussulman pilgrimages is 
absurd, and the practice is even more so. What 
can be more intrinsically foolish, as well as 
heartless and cruel, than the custom of sending off 



iv.] DIVINING 119 

the old women, when they are past work, to some 

holy shrine, under the impression that, if they die 

on the very difficult journey, as in a certain class 

of cases they generally do, they will go straight to 

Heaven? It is rather a ghastly custom to send 

vast quantities of bodies for interment in the 

exceedingly inadequate space at Qum, over a 

country where there is no vehicular transport. 

But the natural demand for a more easy set of 

roads to Heaven has caused a multiplication of 

such practices as these far beyond anything that 

was originally taught in the mosques. Things 

have gone so far in this respect, that the most 

popular edition of the Quran in Persia is a very 

minute round one in two parts, absolutely illegible, 

and only suitable for wearing in a sewn-up case. 

As in most superstitious countries, we find a 

number of superstitions connected with divining ; 

and these are largely sanctioned by the mullas, 

who will divine with the Quran in a mosque for a 

fee. The commoner form of divining is with a 

rosary, rather on the plan of " Two, four, six, eight, 

Mary at the cottage gate." Persians use this to 

an extent that is hardly believable. They will 

consult the beads as to whether to send for the 

doctor, and again, after he has come, to see 



120 DIVINING [chap. 

whether they should buy the medicine he 
prescribes, and finally, after buying it, they consult 
them once more before deciding whether the 
patient shall take a dose. At the same time it is 
quite permissible to " call threes." A woman with 
raging toothache got permission from the beads to 
send for a European lady to extract the tooth, but 
on taking the beads for the extraction after her 
arrival they were unfavourable, so arrangements 
were at once made for divining with the Quran at 
a mosque, which would of course overrule any 
result with the beads. A Persian will consider 
himself quite justified in breaking a business 
engagement if the beads tell him he had better 
avoid the interview ; indeed very often he will not 
so much as fix a date for the payment of a bill 
before he has consulted his almanac, and 
discovered which are the lucky and which are the 
unlucky days. 

The vast empty deserts which surround Yezd, 
and the huge mountain ridges which form the 
horizon are to the Yezdi by no means empty. It 
is an axiom of science that Nature abhors a 
vacuum, and it is a corresponding psychological 
law that the human imagination cannot tolerate 
absolute emptiness. So the Yezdi, like the 




CORPSES EN ROUTE TO TH 



E QUM CEMETERY. 





SANDY DESERT NEAR YEZD. 



[To face p. 120. 



iv.] JINS AND DIVS 121 

Arabian, peoples his deserts with jins and dlvs and 
devils, and wherever there is a space not rilled in 
he imagines strange forms of animal life. At the 
risk of being considered superstitious myself I must 
own that I should like to see some of the travellers' 
tales of Persia more carefully investigated, particu- 
larly those relating to the existence of very large 
lizards which are dangerous to human life. One is 
familiar with the defences that are being constantly 
brought forward for the fable of the sea-serpent ; 
how that the sea is after all an almost unknown 
waste, only crossed in a very few places by well 
established water-roads that can be most easily 
avoided ; and although the desert cannot be said to 
afford as much cover as the ocean, for it is not 
possible to plunge below the surface at any point 
at any time, still its vast expanses are almost as 
untraversed and unknown as the ocean wastes, and 
there are not a few places, especially in the 
mountains, honeycombed with caves and clefts. 
This however is a digression. In such a country 
as I have described, with its vast and barren 
solitudes, it would be difficult for a people to exist 
and maintain their reason, if they did not believe 
in something corresponding to the jins and divs. 
Consequently we find jins in the keyholes, jins in 

Q 



122 EVIL EYE [chap. 

the qan'ats, divs in the mountains, divs in the rocks, 
anywhere, everywhere, a vast population filling up 
the huge interstices left by Nature. Most of this 
population is malevolent ; so naturally the ordinary 
Persian is a mass of charms : nobody goes about 
without cold iron in his pocket, and a large 
number of people wear either the sacred book in 
its entirety, or large portions of it somewhere 
about their person. Also they are terribly afraid 
of the evil eye; and numbers of their charms, 
especially for the children, are directed against it. 
It is not that they think the evil eye common : any 
Persian will tell you that very few people have it, 
but they all know of at least one case, and they 
are terribly afraid of it, sometimes refusing to 
admit strangers to their house until they are 
satisfied they have not got it. If a mother sees a 
dead body before the birth of her child, then, 
unless she takes the precaution of placing some 
salt on the corpse, and afterwards putting a little 
of it in the child's eye, her child will inevitably 
have the evil eye, and everything that is pleasing 
to its eye will be cursed. The evil eye is likely to 
kill children of tender years, so very young 
children are always hidden under the chddar when 
carried in the street. 



iv.] SUPERSTITIONS GENERAL 123 

These superstitions are exceedingly general, 
and sometimes co-exist with a certain amount 
of intelligence and education. I remember a 
man who had obviously been in touch with some 
of the Persian mystics, and was quite capable 
of discussing and more or less understanding 
complicated ideas, telling me that he considered 
that the silkworm owners in the Yezd district 
were exceedingly wise in refusing to admit 
strangers to see the worms. He explained to 
me that they were creatures of such extreme 
harmlessness and guilelessness that they were 
peculiarly susceptible to malevolent influences 
from the outside world. 

Superstitions of this kind will be found in 
all countries, and in most lands there are in 
addition superstitions that seem to be more 
intimately connected with the religion. The 
nature of the country fosters the tendency in 
Persia, and the Parsis are nearly as superstitious 
as the Mussulmans. But in Mohammedanism 
the peculiar difficulty is that there is nothing to 
guide a man in separating the superstitious 
practices from any connected with a central 
true idea. The whole religion is a medley of 
trivialities. The history of Mohammed and his 



124 TRIVIAL COMMANDMENTS [ohap. 

early admiration for the Jews, with whom he 
must have been constantly in touch, explains 
this. He saw the result of their ceremonial 
law and their national religious customs, binding 
them together and making them a peculiar people 
in every action of their household life ; but of 
the parabolic significance of this law, of the 
doctrinal system which governed it, he saw and 
was taught very little or nothing. Nor did he 
want it : he wanted simply the political result, 
and in getting this he was eminently successful. 
He copied the system, but he gave to Islam a 
maximum of ordinances containing a minimum 
of teaching. After his death the minutiae went 
on accumulating, until everything in the life of 
a Mussulman took a religious colour. In Persia 
the very dress is supposed to be more or less 
modelled on that worn by the prophet. The 
people not only kill their animals and eat their 
food according to the precepts of the Quran, 
but relying on their very extensive traditions 
they follow a prescribed religious practice in 
attitude and language. Shiahs are particularly 
scrupulous about certain of their washings, and 
think almost as much about them as they do 
about the regularity of their prayers. "If I 



iv,] ENQUIRERS 1 QUESTIONS 125 

become a Christian, when and how am I to 

wash myself?" This is one of the commonest 

questions for an enquirer to put to a missionary. 

Another very common one is, " How am I to 

dress ? " The Mussulman hardly understands you 

if you tell him that such points are left to the 

individual judgment. I remember a Persian 

trying to prove to me that I could not possibly 

consider all meats lawful and ceremonially clean, 

or I should eat cat. It is very difficult to explain 

to the Yezdi that the drinking of wine at meals 

is not a necessary Christian institution, and for 

this reason the consideration of the necessity of 

maintaining Christian liberty is in Persia rather 

an argument for total abstinence than against 

it. In Yezd we are continually being asked 

whether the commonest peculiarities of European 

custom, such as eating with a knife and fork, 

were ordained by Christ. In one house they 

had to make away with some kittens, and the 

servant was directed to dig a hole in the compound 

for their reception. While he was doing so he 

asked his mistress, " Did your prophet direct you 

to bury kittens ? " But the extreme point of 

triviality was reached by a man who had seemed 

a most intelligent enquirer, and had asked me 



126 ENTERTAINMENTS RELIGIOUS [chap. 

to explain the essential points of Christianity, 
to which he listened most attentively, appearing 
to weigh them in his mind. When I had finished, 
he paused to consider the whole position : " Sahib" 
he said very slowly, " man masala daram" — " Sir, 
I have a religions question to bring before you." 
I said, " Bifarmat/Id." — " Please proceed." " Ai/a 
Masih" he said very deliberately, " dvdz i sutra 
kalal demist?" — "Did Christ consider humming 
lawful ? " I reassured him on the point, and 
tried to explain the spiritual nature of Christ's 
teaching. I then left the room to get a book, 
and, when I came back, he was humming to 
himself contentedly. 

Religion also provides the Yezdi with his 
entertainments and excitements ; the place of the 
theatre is taken by the Muharram miracle play, 
and that of the ordinary concert by the ruza hhdni 
or religious recitation, while even street rioting 
is generally connected with the persecution of 
people who do not agree with the religious 
opinions of the rioters. All this serves to 
strengthen the attachment of the common people 
to the religious system, which stands to them in 
the place of country, standard of etiquette, habits 
of life and code of cleanliness. As a matter of 



iv.] RELIGIOSITY 127 

fact religion is not quite the right term for the 
Mohammedan system, for religion means restraint, 
and the object of almost all of the other systems 
called religions has been to present a predominant 
idea which is to govern and restrain all other 
ideas and aspects of life. In Mohammedanism 
there is the predominant idea of the tauhid and 
pa/igha/mh<wi 9 but this conception more resembles 
the central doctrine of a philosophy than the 
governing principle of a religion. To put it in 
other words, Mohammed sought by his theological 
teaching rather to include everything than to 
control everything. Consequently the Mussul- 
man, who reflects the spirit of his master much 
more than is generally allowed, is never satisfied 
with himself unless he is using religious language. 
What he does matters comparatively little, but 
the way in which he regards his action matters 
a great deal. If he forgets to mention God's 
name, he corrects himself; but to his mind there 
is little or no blasphemy in connecting God's 
name with any action of life, important or trivial, 
good or bad. The result of this is that those 
who are accustomed to religions possessing more 
influence over moral action are amazed at the 
religiosity of the Mohammedan : but although 



188 INCLUSIVENESS OF ISLAM [chaf. 

this religiosity is a fact, the whole wonder of it 
ceases when the religion is carefully examined. 
Others are equally astounded at what they 
consider the hypocrisy of the Mussulman ; but 
this also is a misnomer : a Mussulman is not 
hypocritical : rather he has taken up a position 
towards affairs which renders hypocrisy un- 
necessary. 

In Persia, at any rate, there is a further 
mistake which ought to be guarded against. 
Islam is not mere worldliness sanctified by the 
use of religious terms : it includes a great deal 
of unworldly thought, although it combines all 
considerations, worldly or unworldly, with little 
if any distinction. Still it must be owned that 
the worldly considerations are apt to predominate, 
for the Persian Shiah seems to be a reflection of 
Mohammed, who suggested that pilgrimages should 
be used for purposes of trade, invited people to 
become Mussulmans for political reasons, and not 
only winked at the making of converts by threats 
and terrorism, but laid this down as one of the 
essential means for spreading the religion. It is 
not sufficient to call such a system politico- 
religious, for it not only includes matters of public 
expediency in the religious idea, but it also 



iv] DOUBLE MOTIVES 129 

sanctifies considerations of expediency that are 
purely personal. Yet there is one thing that the 
missionary in such a land as Persia cannot too 
fully realise ; and that is that he is dealing with 
people who are not in the least ashamed of 
doubleness of motive. In their view, two purposes 
are better than one ; and when it has been proved 
that their purposes are worldly, it has still to be 
considered whether there is not an unworldly 
purpose as well. 

Men frequently come to enquire about Chris- 
tianity, drawn by what seems to us a strange 
mixture of motives. They naturally enough 
put their more spiritual purposes first, for they 
realise that these are most appreciated by those 
to whom they talk, and they also consider that 
things like this ought to have a theoretical 
priority. Temporal needs are, however, much 
more pressing, and these have just as much claim 
to be satisfied by a new religion. Of course such 
a position is likely to be fruitful, not only of the 
gravest difficulties, but also of the most lament- 
able misunderstandings. 

It will be readily understood that a system 
like this can easily be made to cover ideas which 
appear inconsistent, and as a matter of fact, it is 

R 



130 IDEAS OF UNCLEANNESS [chap. 

very difficult to define some of the notions which 
Persian Shiahs hold to a point of fanaticism. For 
instance, there is room for considerable difference 
of opinion as to how far the Yezdi regards the 
foreigner as unclean. The Mohammedan is taught 
to regard as unclean the eating of certain kinds of 
food, contact with certain animals, and also contact 
with the persons of people who have not been 
ceremonially cleansed. There seem, however, to 
be degrees of uncleanness. Mohammed in one 
verse of the Quran declared the food of the 
Christians and Jews, as well as all food that had 
been properly prepared by a Mussulman, to be 
lawful ; but we cannot suppose that he regarded 
these different classes of food as equally clean. 
Bigoted Persians sometimes ignore this permission 
of their prophet's, and declare that it refers only 
to dry food prepared by Jews or Christians; but 
in this they are not consistent, for they eat dry 
food prepared by pagans also. 

The truth is that the attitude of the Persian 
towards the infidel is not altogether decided by 
Mohammed's direct teaching, but to a very large 
extent it is based upon an elementary human 
feeling which can be found in almost every 
country under the sun. Most people in England 



iv.] IDEAS OF UNCLEANNESS 131 

have a physical shrinking from undue contact 
with other persons. We do not care to drink 
out of a cup that other people have used, until 
it has been washed ; we should, very few of us, 
care to take alternate bites at an apple with 
somebody else, and most Englishmen have a 
very similar objection to kissing. We are much 
less particular about contact with the hand, though 
here also we feel that a line has got to be drawn 
somewhere. Within the family we are less 
particular. Of course in connection with these 
things there is in England a great deal of talk 
about infection and the laws of hygiene, but the 
instinct exists apart from any notion of hygiene 
at all. Now in Persia you have got to remember 
that everything takes a religious colour, and this 
has tended to slightly modify the natural instinct, 
breaking down the wall of reserve within the 
boundaries of Islam, and giving the feeling the 
colour of a religious prejudice when applied to 
the outside world. Of course there are hundreds 
of Yezdi Mussulmans who will eat freely with a 
European without the slightest scruple, and a still 
larger number who do not allow their scruples 
to make any practical difference : at the same 
time people who wish to get into close touch 



132 IDEAS OF UNCLEANNESS [chap. 

with the natives should remember that the feeling 
of nijdsat, or ceremonial uncleanness, is a some- 
what complex one, and that it will be more easy 
to overcome it if a certain discretion is observed. 
Persians eating the food of a European are on 
the look out for anything which is strange and 
peculiar, and if such peculiarities are observed 
they naturally feel more strongly the difference 
between themselves and their host. This not 
only renders them less approachable, but it also 
makes them much more shy of adopting Christian 
ideas, and in the case of enquirers, who, as I 
have said before, find it very difficult to understand 
that our customs are not all regulated by religion, 
a feeling may grow up that the state of Christianity 
is not possible to a native Persian. 

As this book is not about Mohammedanism 
but about the Yezdi, 1 have perhaps devoted 
as much space to the religion of Islam in Yezd 
as is warranted by my choice of subject matter. 
At the same time there is no doubt that I have 
left out a great deal that might have been said, 
even without going into those details of doctrine 
and practice which it has been my intention to 
avoid. I have tried to give some idea of what 
Islam means to ordinary people in an ordinary 



iv] OTHER SIDES OF RELIGION 133 

Persian town, and I have had to dwell rather 
more at length on points where there was danger 
of misconception either through too precise a 
study of the accurate doctrines of Islam, or 
through a too superficial view of the result. In 
doing this I fear that I may have passed over too 
rapidly the more familiar aspects of the religion, 
the intense excitement of the spectators and 
actors at the Muharram games, the mourning 
for Hasan and Husain, the frenzied fanaticism of 
the mob after a rousing sermon at the mosques, 
and the close adherence of many Mussulmans 
to washing and prayers. This is one side of 
Shiah Islam, but as it is better known I have 
attempted to give the other. I cannot, however, 
leave the subject without reminding those who 
have to do with Persians of two most important 
things ; first, that there is a real spiritual seeking 
amongst Mussulmans, and that the presence of 
worldly motives does not preclude it ; secondly, 
that there is real enthusiasm for their religion 
in spite of latitudinarian ideas. To the Mussul- 
man, as has been before stated, the system of 
Islam is everything, and he clings to it as dearly 
as to life itself, for it represents to him every 
habit that he has formed, and its cause is the 



134 OTHER SIDES OF RELIGION [chap. 

cause of every motive that he acknowledges to 
be possible. 

The religious ceremonies which in Persia arouse the greatest 
enthusiasm and fervour are essentially Shiah. The yearly 
miracle play in the month of Muharram depicts the death 
of the Imam Husain, son of Ali and Fatima, and grandson 
of Mohammed. This is the occasion of the most violent 
exhibitions of emotion on the part of both players and 
spectators. Men lash their naked bodies with chains in an 
ecstasy of frenzy, and the whole crowd bursts into groans 
and tears of grief. Feeling runs so high, and becomes so 
unmanageable on these occasions, that the secular authorities 
have tried to keep the performances out of the larger towns. 
But the atmosphere which is created is not by any means 
anti-foreign in a general sense. The Imam Husain was 
done to death by his co-religionists, and tradition reports 
that a Ferangi ambassador interceded with Yazid for the 
martyr's life. This ambassador appears in the play, and 
Persians often try to borrow an English saddle for his 
horse from the European residents. At the performance 
at the big village of Taft, which is near Yezd, I think the 
ambassador was often dressed as a modern Englishman, but 
I cannot vouch for this. At Yezd itself, the miracle play 
was not acted ; but the carrying of the Nakhl, a ceremony 
supposed to be fraught with the same kind of danger, took 
place yearly. The Nakhl is a huge wooden erection hung on 
one side with daggers, and on the other side with looking- 
glasses. There are several Nakhls in Yezd, and two are very 
large. This custom also is connected with the death of 
the Shiah martyrs. The Nakhl is supposed to be moved 
from its place in the square by the miraculous agency of 



iv.] OTHER SIDES OF RELIGION 135 

Fatima; but a good many people take it on themselves 
to assist her. Lastly, there is a night set apart for the 
burning of Omar, the usurping Khalif, and the carrying 
of the effigy through the town is the occasion of extreme 
excitement. One cannot help being strongly reminded of 
Guy Fawkes 1 day in England. Omar, it must be remembered, 
is a Sunni saint. 



CHAPTER V 

Character of the Yezdi — Systematised inconsistency — 
Loyalty to causes and individuals — Unreliability of 
evidence — Shame — Humour — Disregard of time — 
Language — Lack of initiative — Courage — The Yezdi 
soldier — Etiquette and manners — Triviality — Pride — 
Kindliness and cruelty — Dishonesty — Difficulty in 
obtaining anything — Tendency to fatalism — Latent 
strength of Persian character — Family ties — The Jus 
Paternum — Religious liberty — Open-handedness — 
Summary. 

If it were not absolutely essential to the purpose 
of a book like this that there should be a more or 
less detailed analysis of the character of the Yezdi, 
I should certainly shirk making such an analysis. 
The Yezdi's faults are numerous, glaring, and 
interesting. His virtues are not only fewer, but 
there is much less to be said about them. In the 
concrete man, these virtues show fairly promin- 
ently, the vices have their peculiar humour, and 
the whole is not unlovable. On paper, while 
discussing the different points of the Yezdi's 

136 



chap, v.] SYSTEMATISED INCONSISTENCY 137 

character one by one, it will be almost impossible 
to convey the general effect made by the entire 
human being. 

When one first becomes acquainted with the 
Yezdi, one is inclined to regard him as so 
inconsistent in matters of morals as to be utterly 
devoid of all principle, bad or good. There is the 
same uncertainty about his actions that there is 
about the fall of an unloaded die. But just as 
the fall of the die is regulated by the law of 
averages, so the actions of the Yezdi are more or 
less consciously decided by what can only be 
termed systematised inconsistency, a kind of law 
of balance which seems to him to possess the merit 
of a principle. When he has done a certain 
number of good actions, which it must be 
confessed is frequently the case, then it is time for 
him to do some bad ones ; and vice versa, when he 
has done enough bad ones, he comes back for a 
time to good ones. This is partially the result of 
the theory of savabs ; and the painful thing about 
it is that it makes moral trustworthiness impossible. 
If a man holds this pernicious theory as it was 
sketched in a previous chapter, then the more he 
has done right in the past the more he will feel 
justified in doing wrong in the future ; and this in 



138 LOYALTY [chap. 

Yezd is no mere nightmare, but the literal fact. 
A good many of the Yezdis are frequently fair and 
straight in their dealings, but I do not know a 
single Mussulman among them, with regard to 
whom it would be fairly safe to depend on his 
doing the right thing on any particular occasion 
simply because he knew it to be right. There are 
men whose ordinary habits are fairly good, but to a 
man who considers that derelictions of duty can be 
absolutely paid for by past or future acts of merit 
not necessarily involving very much trouble, the 
temptation to yield to slightly increased pressure 
is very strong, and is likely to frequently overcome 
the bias of habit. 

On the other hand, Persians have very strong 
notions of loyalty both to causes and to individuals. 
Nothing has brought this out more than the 
history of the Babi movement, which has certainly 
exhibited the strength of Persian character. Boys 
and young men have in this movement willingly 
undergone the most terrible tortures in the service 
of their spiritual teachers and the common cause. 
It ought to be understood that the motives of the 
Babi martyr are not quite the same as those which 
have generally influenced the Christians who have 
died for their faith. The Christian martyrs have 



v.] AVERSION TO STRICT RULES 139 

generally died rather than do some act which they 
felt to be sinful, or leave undone something which 
they regarded as essential. A large number of the 
Babi martyrs on the other hand have died because 
they chose not to deny their faith, which according 
to their tenets was perfectly permissible to do. 
Now I know of at least one man, a Persian of high 
position, who was killed as a Babi, but who would 
have preferred embracing Christianity. What was 
his connection with Babiism I cannot say : he 
would, I believe, have embraced Christianity had it 
not been that he shrank from a religion where a 
direct denial of one's faith must always be 
accounted sinful. Whatever he was, he certainly 
did not shrink from making his divergence from 
orthodox Islam dangerously plain, and in this way 
he met his death. My purpose in mentioning the 
fact is to show that it is most difficult to induce 
a Mussulman to accept a very hard and fast 
line. Of course the story is only an illustration 
and does not prove the point, because there must 
have been other considerations which made 
Babiism, or a degree of unorthodoxy which passed 
for Babiism, easier to such a man than Christianity. 
It is not necessary to suppose that he was only 
influenced by a dislike to unbending rules ; for 



140 PERSONAL ATTACHMENTS [chap. 

the inability to ever deny his faith might have 
exposed him to petty insults, which would have 
been to him worse than death. Also his position 
as a Christian would have been, humanly speaking, 
a more solitary one. Still, when all has been said, 
I am convinced that the constitutional dislike to a 
hard and fast rule played at least some part in 
bringing the man to his decision, and also that this 
dislike is more pronounced in the Mussulman 
Yezdi than in the Yezdi Parsi. 

A Persian who attaches himself to an individual 
will often prove himself very trustworthy in all 
matters affecting that individual's interest; and 
generally speaking, attachment to a European 
would be likely to produce a more dependable 
loyalty than attachment to another Persian. The 
feeling that a European friend would always him- 
self act in a certain manner frequently leads a 
Persian to try and act in the same way towards 
him. I remember a Persian servant once replying 
to my wife, who had expostulated with him on 
the subject of some egregious falsehood that he 
had just told in the bazaars, " Of course, Khanum, 
I don't tell lies to you, for you don't like it ; but 
these people expect me to lie, and one couldn't 
tell the truth to them." 



v.] INCONSISTENCY NOT WEAKNESS 141 

Perhaps one might go further, and say that 
the Yezdi Mussulman frequently questions the 
virtue of keeping to an abstract principle, particu- 
larly when by abandoning it one might do a good 
turn to a friend. Impartiality is a thing which 
he absolutely fails to understand : indeed he 
considers it simply another name for disloyalty, 
and here it is probable that most other Easterns 
would agree with him. 

It is impossible to treat the inconsistency of 
Yezdi Mussulmans as simple weakness. It is 
rather the absence of such principles as Westerns 
generally possess than the inability to keep to 
them ; and indeed it is often the result of other 
principles of a peculiar kind, diametrically opposed 
to those to which we are accustomed. The Yezdis 
are a free-handed folk, and they despise a man 
who does not spend freely. They like to appear 
to live up to their incomes, and I think that some 
of them have a feeling of the same kind about 
their debit and credit account with their Creator. 
Also we must not forget that Persian inconsist- 
ency is not always a deviation towards wrong, 
but equally often a deviation towards right. 
Though in Persia it is never well to trust to a 
man's character, it is always advisable to appeal 



142 REASONS FOR INCONSISTENCY [chap 

to high principles, even when dealing with 
apparently the most abandoned. While we were 
in Yezd we were brought into contact with three 
men in high position, whose names it is not 
necessary to mention, but whom I would put 
down as the three worst prominent men in Yezd. 
The first was an aristocratic official, the second 
a cleric, and the third an official and a nouveau 
riche. Now each of these three at some time or 
other made himself conspicuous by conduct that 
one was bound to commend and approve. It is 
impossible to always analyse motives, but in at 
least one case the action seemed to have been due 
to nothing but a disinterested and unselfish 
impulse. In the other cases it is more probable 
that expediency, or a conscious intention of paying 
for sins by savabs, entered into the matter. 

To trace this peculiarity of the Yezdi's character 
to its source is not easy. Sometimes it appears to 
be a species of hedging, for it is very difficult to 
find out the truth in Persia, and a general dis- 
belief in everything may have led the Persian to 
feel that it is unsafe to stake his all on one 
theory of the universe. The amount of lying 
that is done in a town like Yezd baffles descrip- 
tion. An Englishman when in doubt tells the 



v.] LYING 143 

truth. A Persian when in doubt tells a lie. 
This would be more tolerable were it not that 
a Persian is always in doubt. In Yezd security 
is a thing unknown, and telling lies becomes part 
of the instinct of self-preservation. Then again 
the lies are of a new kind. Lies in England are 
generally told to deceive people in some particular ; 
in Yezd they are just as frequently told in order 
to make the very search for truth impossible. 
When I have had to examine into cases of petty 
theft amongst schoolboys, I have found that to 
get at the truth is an almost superhuman task. 
English boys, if they do not tell the truth, will 
at least tell as few falsehoods as possible, if for no 
other reason, to avoid being found out. Persian 
boys will not only lie on the subject they wish 
to conceal, but they will tell as many untruths 
as they can cram into the story, so as to render 
any attempt at investigation futile. Of course 
you know that they are lying, but, as they never 
imagine that you will suspect them of telling the 
truth, they are not much deterred. 

The result of this practice is that in the Yezd 
bazaars, taking together all statements, even the 
most trivial, that are made by Mussulmans, 
probably not less than one-third of the speeches 



144 LYING [chap. 

made are falsehoods. I do not think that the 
Persian beggar ever expects to be believed. A 
woman once came to the house, asking for a quilt 
because she had none, and her son was ill. To 
have no quilt, that is, to have no bed-clothes, is 
by no means an unbelievable state of poverty, 
and there is no doubt that the woman expected 
to have her words taken literally. It transpired 
that her son was quite well, but was taking 
sanctuary to avoid being molested for a debt. 
The woman had a perfectly possible quilt, but it 
was old and patched. She actually brought it to 
us the next morning, not to prove that after all 
they were very poor, but to show that in saying 
she had none she had spoken the truth. Another 
woman once told me in the street, that she had 
six orphan children and her husband was sick. 

In a country like this it is not surprising that 
evidence is at a discount, and that there are in- 
telligent people absolutely convinced that truth 
is unknowable. A man who is accustomed to 
act upon this theory in the ordinary affairs of life, 
is naturally inclined to apply the same principle 
to whatever religion or philosophy he possesses. 
So we get men who are unwilling to stake every- 
thing on anything in particular. If they have 



v.] TOPSY-TURVYDOM 145 

previously assumed that it is most advantageous 
to do what is right, then it is well to perform 
just a few actions on the assumption that it is 
more advantageous to do wrong. If they have 
hitherto acted on the principle that it is better 
to do what is wrong, then it is well not to put 
all their eggs into that basket either. And indeed 
I am inclined to think that many of the Yezdis 
would apply the same philosophy to their non- 
ethical ideas. If they have based most of their 
opinions on the assumption that something is 
true, it is well to base others on the assumption 
that the same thing is false. This, of course, 
sounds to us mere nonsense, but once grant with 
many of the Yezdis that evidence is valueless, 
and truth absolutely unknowable, and it at once 
becomes an approximation to sense. 

It is quite possible that some of my readers 
may ask whether this last attempt to explain the 
inconsistency of the Yezdis is to be taken seriously. 
To say that I do not know is rather a weak con- 
fession, but at the same time it is true. I certainly 
do not pin my faith to it, yet it seems to be the 
way in which the bewildering topsy-turvydom of 
Persia is working. Never forget that the jokes 
of W. S, Gilbert are the facts of Persia. For 

T 



146 TOPSY-TURVYDOM [chap. 

instance, in an isolated place like Yezd, the laws 
of supply and demand operate so peculiarly that 
the ordinary custom of discount on quantity is 
inverted; you will be able to get things usually 
sold at three for a penny at perhaps thirty for 
a shilling. There was a governor in Yezd, 
certainly not more than twenty years ago, who 
had men bastinadoed for walking in the bazaars 
without treading down the heels of their slippers. 
In such a country it is very difficult to say what 
is in itself ridiculous and impossible. One can 
only judge from evidence, which is, I think, in 
favour of the theory I have just suggested as a 
possible explanation of undoubted facts. At the 
same time the unreliability of the Yezdi is 
probably due to several causes, and there is one 
of these causes about which one may speak with 
less uncertainty. This is the piecemeal apprecia- 
tion of ideas and circumstances, which I have 
already mentioned as the result of the impression 
made on the Yezdi's mind by the isolated objects 
which continually surround him, and which is 
probably heightened by a religion which was 
constructed under circumstances very similar to 
those of the Persian deserts. 

Shame is the feeling of vexation consequent 



v.] SHAME 147 

upon the consciousness of having fallen below 
an accepted standard of conduct, and where such 
a standard is not to be found, shame does not 
exist. Consequently the Yezdi, who has only 
the faintest idea of a moral standard that ought 
to govern his whole life, is not susceptible to 
shame in this particular. He has, however, a 
rather stronger idea of a general standard of in- 
telligence up to which he ought to live, so it is 
often a greater deterrent to him to point out 
that a certain action will be regarded as ignorant 
or silly than to show that it is less moral than 
his ordinary behaviour. He also possesses a very 
keen appreciation of what he considers to be the 
ethical proprieties of a particular occasion. We 
must remember that what he lacks in breadth 
of view he makes up for in power of concentration 
on the comparatively small field of ideas that can 
come simultaneously within the range of his 
mental vision. For example, when European 
missionaries have been in vain attempting to 
simplify a most abstruse and metaphysical 
doctrine by spreading it over several easy 
steps, they sometimes find that the Persian mind, 
though it utterly fails to grasp the simpler train 
of reasoning, can without any assistance take in 



148 SHAME [chap. 

the more difficult idea, so long as it is expressed 
with sufficient brevity. In the same way the 
Yezdi, who seems to have little or no sense of the 
proprieties of a lifetime, will have an appreciation 
of what is right and fitting on a particular occasion 
stronger than that of the European. This is what 
makes him so dignified at times and seasons, and 
so undignified in his life. Although his sense 
of propriety does not always work, where it does 
work it is so far from being weak that to violate 
it seems to give him a sensation that is near 
akin to physical pain. You cannot make a Yezdi 
apologise : if he has done an injury, he is quite 
content to ignore it, or to assert that it has not 
taken place, which is the ordinary substitute for 
an apology in Persia: but the man's sense of 
shame is too great to allow him to confess to 
such an action before the man he has wronged. 
He has no objection to the man knowing what 
has happened ; but at the interview his denial 
must be accepted or the injury ignored. This 
is the only way in which he can submit to the 
meeting. 

The Yezdi has not a very fine sense of humour, 
but he is easily amused. Perhaps it is worth while 
to instance an occasion which occurred during our 



v.] HUMOUR 149 

stay in Yezd when the natives seemed really 
tickled. A certain Russian doctor resident in 
the town, who had not a very complete and 
accurate knowledge of Persian, wanted to use 
bad language to his servant, who had in some 
way offended him. As he knew no suitable 
expressions he seized the dictionary and kept 
looking them out one after another, and hurled 
them at the unfortunate man's head as fast 
as this process would permit. This story was 
retailed with very great appreciation by some of 
the better class natives. I rather think it seemed 
to them very much more funny than it does to 
us, and this for two reasons. Persians have a 
great respect for literature, including dictionaries, 
and they would hardly understand their being 
frivolously handled ; also they are very particular 
in adapting their language to the occasion, and 
it would strike them as the height of absurdity to 
abuse a servant in book language, as the doctor 
must have done, unless indeed the Russian 
publication he consulted contained real specimens 
of colloquial abuse, which would have struck the 
Persians as even more funny. 

The story of Mulla Nasiru'd Din and his mule 
is a very fair instance of Persian humour at its best. 



150 UNPUNCTUALITY [chap. 

The Mulla, who was a notorious wit, had sent 
a mule to the market-place where such beasts 
were sold. People were suspicious owing to the 
Mulla's reputation, but nobody supposed that he 
would let himself down by sending an unsaleable 
animal to the bazaars. So first of all someone 
examined its forelegs, and got badly pawed ; then 
someone went to its hind-legs and got kicked ; 
next they looked at its mouth and got bitten; 
finally they tried to put saddle-bags on to its 
back, and it threw them off immediately. 
Consequently when the Mulla strolled down 
everyone laughed at him, and asked him if he 
really expected anybody to buy it. "No, my 
friends," said the Mulla, " I never expected any 
of you to buy it; but I wanted you to know 
what I have to put up with at home." 

One of the things that is most difficult for 
a European to tolerate in a Yezdi is his extra- 
ordinary disregard of time. It is not only that 
he does not care how long he takes over a thing, 
one might tell story after story on this point, 
but this is a malady common in the East. What 
I was not prepared for was that he should have 
no idea what time means. In Persia a clergy- 
man's work consists more of seeing people in 



v.] DIFFICULTIES WITH VISITORS 151 

his own house, and less of visiting ; but the great 
difficulty in receiving visitors is that, if one wants 
to see parties separately, a single reception is all 
one can satisfactorily arrange in an afternoon. 
This is what happens. Two parties send to ask 
when they can see you, and you reply by asking 
when it will be convenient for them to come. 
Both messengers state with the most absolute 
politeness that it makes no difference to their 
masters when you say, and that they wish you 
to choose the time. If you are wise you will 
tell one party to come two hours after noon, and 
the other to come at one hour to sunset, which, 
supposing the sun to be setting at six, will be 
five o'clock. They will both acquiesce, but you 
will have to be ready to receive the party due at 
two at one o'clock, and you must not consider 
them late if they arrive at three. Similarly you 
will prepare for the second party at four, and not 
consider them late before six. But the proba- 
bilities are that both parties will arrive at four, 
the favourite visiting hour, having both decided 
on that time before sending to ask you. 1 

1 This only refers to visits of ceremony. When people found that 
they could come to my house without notice, I often had a continual 
succession of visitors throughout the day. 



152 LANGUAGE CHIEFLY SYNONYMS [chap. 

Another great difficulty is the Persian language. 
Persian is a pretty language with an extremely 
large vocabulary. What is more, every class of 
Yezdi, that is, of the men, uses a very large 
number of words. For all this it is almost 
impossible to accurately define an idea, for the 
language largely consists of synonyms, which 
cannot be used indiscriminately, but must be 
carefully selected according to the occasion. 
Some of these synonyms really possess accurate 
meanings, but if you choose your word according 
to the sense you wish to convey, you talk bad 
Persian. To give an illustration of this, suppose 
in dealing with the Incarnation you desired to 
bring out the Christian doctrine that God is not 
only the Friend of man but also his close 
Companion. I am quite certain that in ordinary 
Yezdi Persian there is no sufficiently appropriate 
term for " companion," that could be applied to 
God in such a way as to bring out your meaning, 
without exposing you to a charge of irreverence. 
As a matter of fact I once tried to convey this 
idea in a Persian sermon, and was met with this 
difficulty. I afterwards tried to get three or four 
native Christians, one of whom was a teacher 
of Persian, to suggest a possible word, but the 



v.] INACCURACY OF GRAMMAR 153 

only expression they could propose was the word 
I had used. 

The words one uses in a letter in Persian, even 
for the commonest objects, are almost entirely 
distinct from the words one uses conversation- 
ally, and the words which one would use in an 
ordinary prose history book are again different. 
Then it is almost impossible to distinguish the 
tenses ; the true future is hardly ever used, con- 
sequently the present and the future are in- 
distinguishable ; and the preterite is frequently 
used of action which was begun in the past but 
which is still continuing. Lastly, the adjective 
is generally indistinguishable from the substan- 
tive, and the link between an adjective and the 
term which it qualifies is the same as the sign of 
the genitive. For instance the text, " This is My 
beloved Son," may be read in the Persian Bible, 
"This is the son of My beloved" without the 
slightest violence to the grammar ; nor, indeed, 
is there any obvious way out of the difficulty. 
I have mentioned these peculiarities of language 
because I think they are greatly connected with 
the Yezdi's inaccuracy of ideas, though which is 
the cause and which is the effect is sometimes 

difficult to say. 

u 



154 ACCEPTANCE OF RISKS [chap. 

There is no situation in which the Yezdi is so 
incalculable as that which seems to demand a 
certain amount of daring. Sometimes the people 
seem absolutely wanting in the power of taking 
the initiative, and expect to be directed like 
children. They have an aversion to killing 
animals except for food, even when there is 
danger to human life in allowing them to live. 
One day an English lady asked why a dangerous 
dog which had bitten several people was not 
killed. The answer was, " If you tell us to kill 
it we will do so, but not otherwise." The fact 
is no one minded killing the dog, but they 
fancied the curse might he with the initiator of 
the movement. They will go on letting things 
be, or allowing them to get more and more 
dangerous, until they have accustomed them- 
selves to an amount of risk to incur which 
would be accounted by a European mere fool- 
hardiness. In this they are largely influenced 
by predestinarian notions. An English lady was 
one day standing by an open tank in a Persian 
compound, into which one of the children had 
fallen that morning, and she remarked on its 
extreme danger. " Yes," said the mother, " I 
have lost three children in that tank." To build 



v.] COURAGE 155 

a small wall round such a tank would be in 
Persia exceedingly easy. Perhaps the little 
power of initiative that is left them by their 
predestinarianism is destroyed by the insecurity 
of the country. People get in the way of 
making as few improvements as possible, and of 
never exposing their capital more than they can 
help. In fraudulent business, however, there is 
a great deal of audacity, sometimes combined 
with a good deal of ingenuity. They are export- 
ing at present to China a quality of so-called 
opium in which there is absolutely no morphia. 
The stuff is really an entirely different substance, 
and very cheap, and it is tied up in bags steeped 
in a solution of opium. It is, I believe, more 
harmful to smoke than the real article. 

Passive courage the Yezdi possesses to a very 
high degree, but he must have a cause for which 
he cares sufficiently, if this courage is to be called 
out. If the terrible Babi massacres that have taken 
place from time to time in Persia have proved 
nothing else, they have at least shown that 
there is grit somewhere in Persian character. The 
way in which mere lads in Yezd went to their 
death in that ghastly summer of 1903 was wonder- 
ful. There was one boy whom they tried very 



156 THE SOLDIER [chap. 

hard to spare, for sometimes the mob were 
moved by something akin to pity. They took 
him to the mujtahid first, and told him to 
recant, and he would not. Then they took him 
to the open square, and held him up to give him 
one more chance, if he would curse the Behaullah 
and the Behals. " The curse be on yourselves," 
was all he said ; and then they tore him in pieces. 
The early Babis showed good fighting qualities 
in the north of Persia, as well as passive courage, 
and, as they were chiefly townsmen, we may 
presume that there are military possibilities in 
the Persian people, even amongst those who 
dwell in cities. But to look for military feeling 
in the kind of soldier that we get in Yezd is not 
fair. He is, I believe, collected by a sort of con- 
scription from certain localities. When collected he 
is taught about as much of the ordinary elements 
of drill as is considered necessary in England 
for the national schoolboy. He is also assigned 
a wage of a toman a month, which if punctually 
paid would be insufficient to cover anything but 
the barest food expenses. This mistake is, how- 
ever, generally remedied by his superior officers, 
who usually intercept so much of his wages that 
he is bound to look for other means of support. 



v.] THE SOLDIER 157 

In this he is not discouraged. If he has a little 
ready cash he usually sets up as a money-lender, 
his official position and possession of a bayonet 
assisting him to collect his debts. Otherwise he 
steals shoes, or takes up some other similar form of 
employment which does not demand an extensive 
capital ; sometimes he even makes shoes. Once a 
year he is supposed to be supplied with a uniform, 
but, though the uniforms are probably not worth 
more than a few shillings, they are very seldom 
regularly supplied. He is, however, free to add 
to his uniform as well as to his pay, and at certain 
times of the year there is very little left of the 
original outfit except an old cap with a metal 
badge, and possibly a belt. When on sentry 
duty he amuses himself by planting a small 
garden, four inches by two, in front of his 
station, and he keeps a heap of rose-heads to 
press into the hands of passers-by on the chance 
of extracting odd halfpence. 

During the latter days of the Babi massacres, a 
guard of four men, a sergeant and three privates, 
was placed at the doors of the European houses by 
the Governor. Every soldier came to us with a 
thing that looked like a gun and certainly had a 
bayonet attached to it; but we heard that at 



158 THE SOLDIER [chap. 

one house it became necessary to send down an 
extra weapon which would shoot for the common 
use of the party. Of course the gun that would 
shoot was withdrawn at the earliest possible 
opportunity. The higher officers of this extra- 
ordinary force are surprisingly numerous, but as 
there are among them, I believe, boys of about 
twelve who hold the title of Field-Marshal, there 
is some excuse for a reduplication of officers. It is 
only justice to add that some of these soldiers are 
in their way very good fellows : the guard sent 
to our house were by no means a bad lot ; and I 
shortly afterwards met a military officer whom I 
would class with the best Persians I know. 

Nor does the courage of Persia come out very 
strongly in the high official class, though here too 
there are honourable exceptions. Still, as a general 
rule, amongst those who claim nobility there is 
very little apprehension of the maxim "noblesse 
oblige." 

Of course there is in Yezdi manners and 
customs much that strikes the outsider as intensely 
funny. For instance, the etiquette is distinctly 
peculiar, and although very ceremonious, it does 
not always appear to the European to be 
characterised by great politeness. When you 



v.] ARTIFICIALITY 159 

come into the room the first two minutes will be 
spent in phrases intended to convey an exaggerated 
respectfulness. In upper middle-class houses your 
host will take upon himself the menial offices of 
service, not only making your tea himself, but 
going out of the room every two minutes to 
supplement the crockery, or to fetch another lump 
of sugar. If you have a servant with you, your 
host or his other visitors will discourse freely with 
this man before your face as to your most trivial 
personal affairs, and if there is a pause in the 
conversation they will make side remarks to one 
another on the number of your virtues, and when 
they have discovered a certain consensus of 
opinion, they will turn to you and give you the 
benefit of it directly, by telling you that you are 
a very good man. From this you must not infer 
that Persian friendliness is hollow: all that can 
be said is that the etiquette is artificial. Even 
so it means something ; for when a man is anxious 
to pay you proper respect he adheres to it closely, 
unless he has reason to suppose that you would 
like him to adopt something of European manners, 
which some Persians dealing with Europeans try 
to do. However the etiquette is too elaborate 
and artificial for universal use, and generally 



160 PRESENTS [chap. 

speaking it is not much used except in matters 
relating to visits and to letter- writing. On other 
occasions Persians who have no intention of 
impoliteness are often a little off-hand as com- 
pared with other Easterns, and those who intend 
to be rude find plenty of opportunities for being 
so. 

There is, I suppose, between the Persian and 
the European a difference of opinion as to what 
constitutes puerility. One of the Governors of 
Yezd once boasted to an English resident that 
it was no good trying to hide things from him, 
as he knew what every European in the town 
had for dinner. Then there is the custom of 
making absolutely worthless presents with the 
most superb empressement. Once when I was 
in a big village near Yezd with my wife and 
baby and mirza, a woman whom my wife knew 
came in, and after greeting us presented us with 
four very crumpled lettuce leaves, selecting the 
leaves according to her ideas of our exact pre- 
cedence with the utmost care and circumspection, 
and having in the whole transaction very much 
the air of a maiden aunt giving a tip to a school- 
boy. Nor must it be supposed that these customs 
only obtain amongst the women. A European 



v.] PRESENTS 161 

banker once told me that if one of his brokers 
gave him anything, the others always followed 
his example ; and that once at the bank one of 
them presented him with a rose-head, the second 
at once plunged his hand into his pocket and 
produced an old sweet, the third fumbled among 
his treasures, and at last found something which 
looked like a lump of gum. He could not quite 
remember what the fourth presentation was, but 
he fancied it was another sweet. Sometimes, 
particularly in Parsi houses, presents of this sort 
will be elaborately handed about, somewhat after 
the fashion of a round game, everybody giving 
something to everybody, and finishing with exactly 
the same amount as they had at the beginning. 
This game, however, is generally played on a 
special occasion, and the presents of fruit and 
sprigs of myrtle have a certain symbolical signifi- 
cance which gives grace and dignity to the 
performance. Of course the interchange of 
presents which although trifling have a positive 
value is one of the most striking features of 
the social intercourse of Persia. This is a custom 
which needs to be understood, and which soon 
degenerates into extravagance, but essentially it is 
a good custom. A higher value is always placed 



162 PRESENTS [chap. 

on what are called saughats or travellers' presents, 
and Europeans either travelling or residing in 
Persia should remember that a certain number 
of these will be expected of them. When a 
Persian has done you a real civility, he feels 
that to a certain extent he has introduced you 
to his home, and any little European thing which 
you may give him he takes as a graceful intro- 
duction to your separate life, and he values it 
from this point of view much more than would 
be otherwise possible. The custom, however, has 
its drawbacks ; for it is the fashion in Persia 
always to present anything which a visitor has 
admired, and this becomes a peculiarly hollow 
piece of etiquette. Occasionally big Persians in 
dealing with inferiors use this custom as a means 
of enriching themselves, but this of course is 
exceptional. 

When all has been said I think that we must 
admit that for some reason or other the Persian is 
willing to expend his energies upon things which 
seem to us to be absolute trifles. This was 
curiously illustrated on one occasion by one of the 
Yezdi gentlemen who is supposed to have advanced 
most in civilisation and culture. I was calling at 
his house at the time, and he handed me a most 



v.] ATTITUDE TOWARDS DISCOVERIES 163 

elaborate atlas with charts and diagrams illustrating 
all sorts of out-of-the-way things. Some of these 
I did not feel myself competent to explain, but 
everything that I could explain he understood at 
once, and he had obviously before my arrival 
discovered the meaning of many of the diagrams. 
We passed on from this to discuss several of the 
great inventions of the age, including wireless 
telegraphy. In everything he showed a most 
intelligent interest, and great quickness of 
perception. Finally, he produced a photograph 
of a man who had been shown at an exhibition, 
I think at Paris. The man had an enormous 
beard, some twelve feet long. My Persian friend 
made no difference at all in his manner, but 
discussed this peculiar phenomenon in exactly the 
same way. I cannot remember all the details of 
this interview, or the exact amount of smile 
which my host allowed himself when we were 
discussing the photograph, but I have attempted 
to faithfully convey the general impression left 
on me by his manner. I think I am right in 
saying that it all points to the fact that the great 
difference between Persia and Europe is that the 
Persian tends to take things piecemeal, and the 
European to regard ideas in their relation to 



164 ATTITUDE TOWARDS DISCOVERIES [ohap. 

others. At the same time this is not always at 
once obvious. A European is firmly convinced 
of the value of scientific knowledge, and will 
decorate a man who has discovered all that is to 
be discovered about a black beetle. Here the 
Persian will laugh at the European, as he also 
will when the European rewards highly extreme 
excellence in the practical trivialities of life. 
But it is obvious that these exceptions are more 
apparent than real. The Persian is like a man 
who has got a pair of glasses that give him a 
very clear view of a very small field of vision. 
He does not view things absolutely piecemeal, 
but he generally regards only a very small area 
at a time. A man who picks up shells with an 
idea of adding to the general store of human 
knowledge is to him an imbecile ; but he is 
only willing to pay the same attention to an 
invention like Marconi's that he w r ould to an 
improved hair-wash. The consequence is that 
the Yezdi very soon adapts himself superficially 
to circumstances, and it is very easy to veneer 
him, but he does not easily assimilate fresh 
principles of action. In dealing with Persians it 
is well to realise this, and not to build too much 
on their adaptability. 



v.] PRIDE IN BELONGINGS 165 

A Persian visitor, when he is behaving 
according to strict etiquette, depreciates not 
only himself but all his belongings. It has been 
suggested that the admiration which is frequently 
expressed for foreign customs and ideas is really 
due to this etiquette, and similarly that the 
belittling of Persia as a country that has gone 
to pieces is due to the same cause. This 
suggestion is, I believe, entirely incorrect. A 
Yezdi will belittle himself, his house, his relations, 
and the country of Persia, because he regards 
the first three as purely personal, and does not 
care the least bit about the fourth ; but if he 
belittles his town, his etiquette, or the foundations 
of his creed, he will make it very plain that he 
expects you to understand that he simply does 
it out of civility. There is one thing that a 
Yezdi puts before everything, and that is the 
water-supply of his town. I personally got on 
very well with the Yezdis, although I had to 
own that I did not admire Mohammed or his 
religion. But another European, who openly 
stated that he did not approve of their water, 
succeeded in absolutely alienating their affections. 
These exceptions show that Yezdis are willing to 
exhibit their pride in what they really love. They 



166 KINDLINESS [chap. 

are also very proud of their literature, their 
language, and their intelligence. As a matter 
of fact, considering their extreme ignorance, they 
are not a conceited people, and their willingness 
to adopt foreign things more or less points to 
the same conclusion. Some of them, and these 
are generally the most ignorant, are insufferably 
conceited, but as a rule their comparative freedom 
from this vice makes them peculiarly likeable. 

The nearest approach to a moral principle 
that I can find amongst the Persians is their com- 
mendation of simple acts of kindness. As I have 
before mentioned the idea of savabs covers many 
actions which have no ethical point, and it fails 
to cover in the Persian mind many actions of a 
moral character where the benefit is not at once 
apparent. But Yezdis are brought up to admire 
simple and direct acts of kindness, and to enjoy 
doing them. Generally speaking, they are very 
good-natured, and in nothing is this so obvious 
as in their conduct towards children. Of course 
cases of gross cruelty to children come to one's 
notice occasionally, but they are after all the 
exception and not the rule, and the children 
are more often spoilt by weak indulgence. The 
Yezdi's conduct towards animals very well 



v.] TREATMENT OF DOGS 167 

illustrates his character. I believe that there is 
less wanton cruelty, particularly towards wild 
animals, than you would find in a European 
town. On the other hand, the cruelty towards 
working beasts is beyond description, there being 
in this case an ulterior object. Again, the dogs 
in the street, which are more or less under the 
ban of the Mussulman religion, are treated in 
the most extraordinary way. They are made 
the recipients of little acts of good-natured kind- 
ness, perhaps under the impression that a savab, 
even to a dog, cannot do any harm, perhaps 
because a Yezdi is often better than his ideas. 
They are also treated on occasions with the most 
fearful cruelty, and the cruelty in this case has 
no point but the satisfaction of a religious pre- 
judice. This is, after all, exactly the way in 
which the Yezdi Mussulman treats the human 
being whom he considers unclean. He has 
alternative principles which he chooses according 
to his mood and circumstances. Sometimes the 
prejudice against killing animals gives rise to very 
great cruelty. It is generally considered a sin 
to kill an animal except in self defence or for 
food, but you may do anything to it short of 
extinguishing life with your own hand. 



168 PREFERENCE FOR DISHONESTY [chap. 

To sum up, in the case of offences against the 
person Yezdis have an inkling of an ethical 
principle, which is frequently at issue with the 
more explicit teaching of their religion. This 
seems to me to be one of the most hopeful 
points in Persian character, and one which the 
missionary ought to most carefully study, trying 
to make it in many cases the basis of his appeals. 
But we have to beware of trading too much upon 
this very rudimentary principle. When we come 
to offences against property, we shall find it applied 
much less frequently, and working with much 
less force. There is no inclination to honesty in 
a Mussulman's character to correspond with the 
inclination to kindly action. If you want to 
find anything of this kind you must go to the 
Parsis. On the contrary, there is nothing that 
gives the Yezdi Mussulman such intense satisfac- 
tion as the feeling that he has scored by his wits. 
He would much rather steal one hran than earn 
two by the same expenditure of effort. A certain 
amount of dishonesty is recognised, and is not in 
any way resented. The servants, for instance, 
expect to make a certain profit upon all transac- 
tions. The extent of their profit is by custom left 
entirely to the conscience of the servant, but 



v.] RECOGNITION OF TRICKERY 169 

everybody would confess that taking more than 
a certain amount was wrong. You will frequently 
catch less trustworthy servants trying to make 
over fifty per cent., and sometimes over a hundred. 
As to the morality of this custom when the lowest 
possible percentage is drawn I can only say that 
I am not wholly convinced, as it appears to me 
that servants who are trying to live a straight life 
never ask for it to be sanctioned, and sometimes 
certainly give it up, at any rate in its direct 
form. But the point is that wages are generally 
arranged on a scale that allows for a man taking 
very much more than the minimum percentage. 
Nor is this sort of allowance for dishonesty only 
made in servants' wages. One day the cook of 
one of the Europeans went to the bazaars for 
meat, and after the usual haggling the price was 
fixed at twelve hrans a man' (thirteen pounds), 
" But," said the cook, " you have got your thumb 
on the scale." " And do you think," retorted the 
butcher, " that I am going to give you meat at 
twelve krans a man', unless I keep my thumb on 
the scale ? " This shows you something of Persian 
business principles, and indeed trickery is regarded 
by all Persians as part of the ordinary routine of 
life. Our servant once asked the milkman if he 

Y 



170 COUPS [ohap. 

could sell us some cream, and the man replied 
quite gravely, " No, if I take off the cream they 
will complain of the milk." He obviously thought 
that the natural way to supply us with cream 
would be to skim the milk he sold us. 

Passing to the merchant class the opium trade 
affords a good instance of the most barefaced 
type of wholesale fraud. Indeed, the fraud of 
a Persian town is beyond conception. We had 
a neighbour in Yezd who was considered a fairly 
respectable man, and whose sole business was 
the forging of seals. But the fact is that every 
class, from the highest to the lowest, is thoroughly 
permeated by the leaven of dishonesty. 

There is so little security for property in Persia 
that men do not consider it worth their while to 
amass wealth by ordinary means. Everybody in a 
town like Yezd is trying to effect a coup, either a 
big one or a small one, and one of the results is 
the most extraordinarily rapid shifting of social 
positions. In Persia the road from beggary to 
princedom is a very short one, and the road from 
princedom to beggary is not very lengthy ; only in 
this return journey it is somewhat difficult to pre- 
vent being assassinated, for when a big man is 
disgraced his life is in extreme danger. 



v.] SLACKNESS 171 

This inattention to ordinary and petty business 
enterprise has curious results. When I first went 
to Yezd I found it almost an impossibility to 
get the things I wanted from the bazaars. The 
European has to deal with the bazaar through 
his servants, and it took my men about three 
days to get the commonest articles other than 
necessary provisions. Articles which I knew 
would need a little hunting for were sometimes, 
if I insisted, procured within the month. This 
is absolutely without exaggeration ; and, although 
1 believe I was unfortunate, other residents and 
travellers in Persia have confessed to similar 
difficulties. You may go into a town where the 
chief occupation is weaving, and declare that you 
want some of the woven articles which it is their 
principal business to make, and it is very possible 
that you may be unable to procure them, or only 
able to get the most inferior specimens, if you are 
passing through quickly. This is rather less true 
of the larger places on the main roads, like Tehran 
and Isfahan, but in towns like Yezd there is the 
greatest difficulty in getting what you want. 

In an emergency it is frequently almost im- 
possible for a European to get what is needed, 
if the things required are not such as he has been 



172 BUSINESS PRINCIPLES [chap. 

accustomed to buy at other times. To offer rather 
more than the price one usually gives is not of 
much use, and frequently has the very reverse 
effect to what is intended ; for the seller in such 
a case may decide to forego the profits of 
legitimate trading for the chances of effecting 
a coup. But the real difficulty is rather that the 
retail trading of Yezd is totally de » « >id of ordinary 
enterprise. When the trader moves out of the 
ordinary rut of his every - day commerce he 
prefers to be fraudulent. In his customary busi- 
ness the shop - keeper makes a fair profit, and 
although his dealings may not be very extensive, 
there is always the chance of something really 
good coming his way. Meanwhile he has a 
position very much more dignified than that of 
the English shop-keeper. In Yezd the seller, not 
the buyer, is the conferrer of the benefit, and so 
far as the relation is concerned, the superior. 
When he sells very small quantities, he often 
charges less than the usual price. When he sells 
large quantities, he frequently charges something 
extra. Europeans in an ordinary way have not 
much difficulty in getting regular supplies when 
they become well known, though they have to 
pay more for them than the natives do. An 



v.] VIEWS ON PERSISTENCE 178 

Armenian also has to pay more than a Yezdi, 
but less than a European. I am inclined to 

think that the poorer natives suffer from the 
difficulty of procuring on emergencies things 
whieh they do not ordinarily buy quite as mueh 
as ourselves, though probably the richer Persians 
have more facilities. This is just one specimen of 
the inertia of Vezd. In matters of transport one 
is even more in the hands of other people. It is 
extremely difficult to find transport at Jess than 
three days' notice, and one can seldom get 
off on a journey within two hours of the time 
arranged. During the journey there is the same 
difficulty in controlling affairs. Under such 
circumstances people naturally get a tendency 
towards fatalism, and undue persistence even 
gets to be regarded as a sin. Probably this has 
some effect, on the religious conceptions of the 
people, for, if a man who sticks to his point is 
not to be admired, it is difficult to understand 
why we should consider unehangeableness of 
purpose a necessary attribute of the Deity. 
Whatever may he the orthodox doctrine of 
Islam upon the subject, there is no doubt that 
the Yezdi fails utterly to understand why there 
should be any persistence or consistency in the 



174 VIEWS ON WEAKNESS [chap. 

view taken by the Deity of human sin, for the 
Yezdi himself would hardly feel justified as a 
father, or person in authority, in taking a similar 
firm stand. One of the consequences of this 
doctrine is that weakness is hardly accounted a 
sin at all. I remember two conversations with 
Babi mullas in which this came out very forcibly. 
They tried to argue that taqlya, that is, the 
custom of denying one's faith under the stress 
of danger, was sanctioned in the gospels by the 
story of Peter's denial. I have also found other 
Persians who have disputed the sinfulness of 
Peter's action, on the ground that he was the 
victim of compulsion. But the most curious 
suggestion with regard to the defensibility of weak 
conduct was made by another party of Babi 
mullas, who considered that the difference 
between the forbearance of Christ towards His 
enemies and the impatience exhibited by 
Mohammed was fully accounted for by the 
respective lengths of their ministries. 

One finds the marks of this want of persistence 
everywhere. I have seldom seen a tombstone 
in Yezd that has been finished accurately, and 
there is scarcely a building that has not got a 
rough, unfinished corner. Similarly every one 



v.] WANT OF MOTIVE 175 

who has seen a Persian carpet knows that the 
design is almost always broken in at least one 
place. 

I suppose the prima facie conclusion is that 
the Yezdi is the weakest of weak beings, but I 
am very doubtful whether this conclusion is true. 
Repose and weakness are two different things, 
and although we seldom find the Yezdi putting 
out his strength, the condition of the country 
is hardly such as to rouse him. Certainly in 
the sphere of morals the Yezdi's religion gives 
him very little inducement to a consistent life. 
" The Light That light eth every man that cometh 
into the world " is not wanting in Persia. Some- 
times it makes Mussulmans superior to their creed, 
but, if I may be allowed to express an opinion, 
I think this Light operates more in calling men 
out of Islam than in guiding them in it. 1 I should 
hesitate to make a similar statement about the 
Parsis. It is not my intention to discuss Zoro- 
astrianism at length, but although it is a religion 
without a gospel, almost all the essential ideas 

1 Certainly the Light also operates inside Islam. During the Babi 
massacre a number of women who had been horrified by the sights in 
the streets said to my wife^ ' ' They say that we can't be Mussulmans if 
we mind these things,, but cannot these things sicken even Moham- 
medans ? " 



176 EXHIBITIONS OF STRENGTH [ CH ap. 

about God, and right and wrong, and the bases 
of human action are undoubtedly true so far as 
they go. 

If one wants to know whether the Yezdi 
Mussulman is strong or weak, one must examine 
his conduct when he is sure of his cause. I think 
he is worthy of some praise for the self-restraint 
he habitually shows when he is conforming to 
the by no means easy restrictions of an established 
and elaborate etiquette. But, as I have previously 
said, the thing which has opened people's eyes 
to the enormous strength of Persian character 
under partially favourable moral conditions, is 
the way in which the Babis have exposed them- 
selves to martyrdom, and have stood firm to 
their beliefs and cause under tortures too horrible 
for description. It has been mentioned that, 
although Yezdis, while they remain Mussulmans, 
do not show any great enthusiasm for a distinction 
between right and wrong, they still possess the 
greatest powers of loyalty both to causes and to 
individuals. In their affection for those for whom 
they care they are anything but weak, and when 
they really attach themselves to Christianity and 
realise the personal presence of Christ, they 
develop an unexpected strength of character. 



v.] FAMILY TIES 177 

We must, however, beware of expecting an utter 
change of constitution to take place at the time 
of conversion. 

A Yezdi's personal attachments do not run 
so closely along the lines of duty and relationship 
as might be expected by people coming to Persia 
from other Eastern countries. The family tie 
is not always a very strong one, though it is 
sometimes exceedingly strong. Perhaps one 
reason for this is the extreme looseness of 
matrimonial relations. A Shiah may have four 
regular and permanent wives. When he marries, 
a settlement is made on the woman, who may be 
divorced at any time if he cares to pay the settle- 
ment. The woman may also divorce her husband, 
if she cares to forfeit the settlement, that is if 
she is sufficiently mistress of her own movements 
to be able to make the necessary arrangements. 
There is no limit to the number of divorces and 
re-marriages, so long as no man possesses at any 
time more than four wives. Besides these he 
may have as many temporary wives as he likes. 
It is true that these wives are theoretically only 
slaves, but this, after all, is simply a legal quibble. 
They can be married either for a few days or for 
a few years. Babis may only have one wife, and 



L78 CHILD MARRIAGES [obap, 

divorce is discouraged, though amongst the less 

respectable Babis in Ye/.d divorce is as common 
as anywhere. Some of the more respectable 
Mussulmans in Ye/d openly profess a belief that 
monogamy is the more respectable state, and 
among the better Yezdi merchants it is very 
common. Girls are sometimes married extremely 
young; for instance at nine or ten, but there is 
a growing feeling that to marry a very young 
child is not altogether respectable, and some of 
the better class merchants prefer not to let their 
girls be married before fourteen. Of course this 
is an unsatisfactory state of things, but one must 
not fly to the conclusion that there is no affection 
in Persian marriages. One of the missionaries 
had a lad of about eighteen in his employment, 
and there had been talk of a marriage between 
him and a child of ten or twelve. Going home 
one evening for his night off, he found that he 
had landed in the middle of his own marriage 
ceremony, which took place that night. He was 
a good-natured lad, fond of children, and the 
little wife was devoted to him and Avas terribly 
distressed at his not coming home the next night, 
for she had got everything ready for him, and 
would not believe he was not comma'. AY hen 



v.] TREATMENT OF MOTHERS 179 

one of the ladies from the missionary's house went 
to call on her some days after she came very 
close up and whispered that she wanted her 
husband to come home every night. 

The women of the highest official class are 
kept very close in Yezd, perhaps only going out 
once in six months, except to the bath ; but the 
merchants' wives have considerably more liberty, 
and the commoner women go about freely. 
Sometimes there is a great deal of real affection 
in the home, at other times exceedingly little, 
especially when there is more than one wife, and 
sometimes there is the grossest cruelty. The fact 
is that Persians are led by impulse in these 
matters. They are very slightly constrained by 
any feeling of principle. As a class perhaps the 
old mothers are the worst treated, and an old 
woman generally prefers going to her daughter 
rather than to her son. One of the richest 
merchants in Yezd had an old mother who 
was very ill, and he refused even to buy a 
chicken to make the broth the doctor had 
ordered. At last a favourite black slave wheedled 
one out of him, and made the broth for the old 
woman. Slaves in Persia are very valuable and 
are generally well treated. On the other hand, 



180 TREATMENT OF MOTHERS [chap. 

another well-known merchant and landowner, 
whose old mother-in-law was very ill, thought 
nothing too good for her ; he insisted on her 
having all she wanted promptly, and came 
himself to her room at least once a day to 
enquire after her health. The same man took 
a personal interest in seeing that every provision 
was made for the comfort of his old cook when 
she was past work, and the general tone of the 
household was one of affection and consideration. 
Another big merchant, whose old mother had 
fallen off a roof, showed the very greatest 
solicitude for her comfort in every possible way, 
spending hours with her, and himself lifting her 
most carefully. At the same time the old women 
as a class are not well treated, and in the better 
class houses it is often difficult to distinguish 
them from the servants. The poorer classes are 
generally no better. I remember that at one 
time my wife was trying to explain to one of 
my servants' wives what ingratitude meant. The 
woman was very fond of her children, so my 
wife asked, " Would you not think it very 
ungrateful, if, when you were old and poor, your 
boy refused to do anything for you?" "No," 
she said, "of course that is what I expect. Our 



v.] JUS PATERNUM 181 

boys are always like that. We only say, ' It 
is the will of God.'" Several women present 
joined in the laugh at my wife's ignorance. 

Of course a great deal of cruelty goes on in 
the less respectable Persian households, and the 
use of poison is not uncommon. It should be 
explained that in Persia people who are not even 
professedly respectable are to be found in every 
class, and in a commercial town like Yezd status 
goes largely by wealth, and carries with it no 
obligation to keep up even a superficial reputation. 
The organisation of the household is very largely 
outside the operation of the ordinary law. I do 
not know what is the exact legal limit of the 
jus paternum, but I am quite sure that it is 
very difficult to bring to book the head of a 
household for murdering any member of his 
family. Also in the case of a member of the 
family leaving Islam, the matter would probably 
be primarily left to the head of the household, 
although if the case was flagrant the matter 
might also be taken up by outsiders. It is very 
necessary to understand this when discussing the 
possibility of religious liberty in Persia. Religious 
liberty, proclaimed by a firman of the Shah, would 
not have the enormous value which is sometimes 



182 PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY [chap. 

supposed. Indeed it would be almost entirely 
without immediate value, unless the Persian 
government were considerably strengthened, and 
a limitation put on the jus patemum. A decision 
by leading mujtahids that it was expedient to 
give such liberty either to the individual or to 
the family, would probably have more immediate 
effect, but, even were such a thing possible, it 
would be difficult to say how long such a decision 
would remain unchanged if advantage was really 
taken of it, and the precedent of the decision 
would on the whole be rather a bad one. 

Another conceivable form of religious liberty 
is that the right of making converts from Islam 
should be secured by treaty to the European 
missionary. This, however, would not put a stop 
to the persecution of converts. There is so much 
injustice that is done in Persia as a matter of 
course, that it would be very difficult to prove 
that Persian subjects who were converts had been 
interfered with for religious reasons. One of the 
difficulties that missionaries experience at present, 
is that converts are always bringing forward 
instances of injustice which they themselves 
believe to be due to their profession of Christianity, 
whereas the missionary, who has considerable 



v.] PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 183 

doubts on the subject, is often afraid of calling 
down real persecution by using his influence on 
their behalf. 

The subject of religious liberty is a very 
difficult one, and although some people feel that 
an extension of treaty rights would be a good 
thing, and others, that a firman of the Shah giving 
religious liberty to his subjects would help the 
growth of sound and civilised ideas in his domain, 
there can be no doubt that the primary want is 
strong and good government. I have tried in 
this chapter not to discuss the government of 
Persia more than is absolutely necessary. It is 
of course far from perfect. At the same time, 
during my stay in Yezd, the governors of the 
town, and notably the Jalalu'd Daula, showed 
great friendliness to the whole European colony, 
and great fairness in their attitude towards the 
mission. The strengthening of the Persian 
government is a clear gain to the missionary, 
and seeing that strong government without 
religious liberty could certainly do for us infinitely 
more than religious liberty without strong govern- 
ment, I personally feel that the strengthening 
of the Persian government, central and local, is 
at present the main desideratum. At the same 



184 CRIME IN THE FAMILY [chap. 

time, with God all things are possible, and I 
should hesitate to press this view on other people. 

One or two instances of the lengths to which 
crime can go in Persian houses without arousing 
much notice from the authorities might be 
recorded. There was in Yezd one man who 
stabbed his own child in its mother's arms, and 
remained absolutely unpunished. He was still 
flagrantly ill-treating his wife and children while 
we were in the town. In the Isfahan district, 
a man murdered his child- wife by pouring paraffin 
over her and lighting it. The child died in the 
Julfa hospital. If any punishment was inflicted 
it was a very light one. There was another 
woman in Yezd dangerously stabbed by her son- 
in-law, but as she did not die, even her family took 
very little notice of the matter. These are a few 
typical specimens of the way in which the family 
is allowed to manage, or mismanage, its own 
affairs. 

Generally speaking, Yezdis are open-handed. 
They have not the least shame about begging, 
and will show the greatest meanness in money- 
getting, but this does not prevent their being 
themselves generous at times. The fact is, that 
they regard beggary as a bargain ; one man gets 



v.] OPEN-HANDEDNESS 185 

a coin, and the other a savab. They accept 

kindnesses of any sort in this manner, and consider 

that they give as good as they get, particularly 

if they are Seyids ; but for all this, they are 

frequently ready to take the other side in the 

game. Probably not less than ten per cent of 

the population are professional beggars, and as 

they do not starve, we may conclude that a great 

deal of money is given away. But the open- 

handedness of the Yezdi takes other forms besides 

the mere giving of money to those who ask for it. 

He spends money freely upon his own pleasures : 

considering his poverty he lives well : this is true 

of all classes : finally, he really enjoys showing 

hospitality. 

There is in Persian hospitality a great deal 

more than the observance of etiquette. Even 

the inquisitiveness of the Yezdi is a kind of 

attempt to get into real touch with his guest. 

In a word, he is essentially human. Most 

Europeans who have lived in Persia find it rather 

difficult to explain why they like the people. 

In the Yezdi there is certainly much to lament, 

but there is something to admire, and very much 

more to like. A people who are open-handed, 

good-natured, affectionate, not always extra va- 

2 a 



186 STATE OF CIVILISATION [chap. 

gantly conceited, and above all, intensely human, 
are a people one cannot help getting to like when 
one lives among them for any time. At the same 
time, their inquisitiveness, unpunctuality, intense 
dishonesty, frequent ingratitude, and absolute 
want of principle in everything, are, to say the 
least of it, very trying. As to their exact position 
in the scale of civilisation, my personal opinion 
of them greatly changed after living through the 
Babi massacre of 1903. To find men, and women 
too, who had been to a certain extent influenced 
by contact with Western ideas and standards, and 
who prided themselves on representing the section 
of Persian Society most advanced in civilisation 
and refinement, openly gloating over horrors that 
would pollute these pages if I were to write them, 
seemed to us to be an indication of a more radical 
difficulty than was evidenced by the horrors them- 
selves. At the same time, the behaviour of the 
Babis under persecution was sufficient to convince 
any one that there is plenty of strength in the 
Persian character, if only it can be called out. 

My conclusion is that it is unfair to the Yezdi's 
character to in any way depreciate the evil effects 
of the circumstances among which he lives. His 
want of principle, his ferocity, and other similar 



v.] MISSIONARY CALL 187 

points in his character can most of them be traced 
to a religious system which was forced upon him 
by the sword ; for we must remember that he is 
four-fifths a Parsi, and only one-fifth an Arab. 
The good points in his character are much less 
easy to trace to his religion. He is not indisposed 
to reform, a fact which is proved by the success of 
the Babi movement, the possibilities of which 
have been discussed already. 

Under these circumstances one can hardly 
imagine a country where the call to Christian 
missionary work was so peremptory, both because 
of the need and because of the peculiar opening 
afforded. Missionary work must, of course, be 
based rather upon the direct commandment of the 
Saviour than upon human judgment. However, 
there is no doubt that God sometimes accentuates 
His written commands by placing peculiar circum- 
stances before our eyes, and 1 cannot conceive 
places appealing more strongly to the intelligent 
student of the missionary field than these isolated 
towns of Persia, one of which I have attempted to 
describe. 



CHAPTER VI 

Difficulties in dealing with enquirers — Language — Argu- 
ment — Parabolic interpretation — Distrust of evidence — 
Ignorance — Attachment to Islam as representing whole 
scheme of life — The problem of converts — Industrial 
missions — Employment by missionaries — Helpful points 
— Readiness for religious discussion — Quickness in grasp- 
ing single points — Yezdi wants distinctive and systematic 
teaching — And a concrete example — Difficulties in 
accepting converts — Tests. 

From what has been previously said it will be 
understood that from the missionary point of view 
there are, when dealing with the Persian, certain 
peculiar difficulties, and also certain things which 
tend to make missionary work more easy. 
We have to deal with a people whose funda- 
mental notions of God and of His dealings with 
men are absolutely different from our own. I am 
not now so much speaking of those tenets on 
which the Mussulman loves to dwell, but rather 
of those tenets of which he does not think it 

188 



ohap.vl] DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING 189 

necessary to speak, which are not so much the 
objects of his faith, but rather indisputable facts 
which stand outside the sphere of faith. The 
difficulty is not so much that the Persian is repelled 
by our holding contrary ideas ; he cannot believe 
that we hold them ; and indeed it is a serious 
difficulty that in accepting the Persian language 
we often unconsciously admit the very Mussulman 
ideas which we intend to attack, and give to the 
Persian premises upon which he can build his 
whole argument. To give an illustration ; a 
Persian enquirer will say to the missionary, " Of 
course you allow that Moses and David were 
prophets ? " The missionary will probably admit 
this. Now if the Persian has used the most 
ordinary term for such prophets, that is, the term 
paighambar, he will naturally suppose that the 
missionary has admitted the following : first of 
all, that God sends from time to time men who are 
appointed by Him to reveal a new law of human 
action, which, so far as the moral commandments 
are concerned, has no necessary connection with pre- 
vious revelation ; secondly, that Moses and David 
gave each of them a sufficient direction to the 
peoples of their day to enable them to apprehend 
salvation. In all probability your Mussulman 



190 DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING [chap. 

friend will assume that you have granted even 
more ; for instance, that Moses and David were 
both of them commissioned to invite everyone they 
came across to accept their religion ; and I should 
be sorry to say that you would not have been 
supposed to have made other still more impossible 
admissions. 

I do not think that it would be possible to 
avoid this difficulty by extreme scrupulosity in 
accepting terms. The result of such hesitation 
would probably be to puzzle and perplex the 
sincere enquirer who was genuinely anxious to 
find out what Christianity really meant. A 
more possible way out of the difficulty is to 
take the first opportunity of stating the difference 
between Mussulman and Christian belief upon 
these subjects, and I shall perhaps be pardoned 
for suggesting that such matters ought to be 
thoroughly thought out beforehand. There are 
a good many terms that we use in the present 
day, such as "perpetuity of the moral law," and 
" continuity and growth of revelation," which 
require very careful analysis before they can be 
presented to minds which have not been 
accustomed to the ideas they represent. I have 
previously compared the mind of the Yezdi to 



vi.] MENTAL PECULIARITIES 191 

a field-glass of very small range and high power, 
and have pointed out that the man possessing 
such a glass sees very clearly within a limited 
area. The Yezdi is utterly different from the 
European. The latter looks for a generally 
consistent system, and, knowing how difficult 
it is to get such a thing, he is content to find 
certain points where the agreement has not been 
thoroughly worked out. The typical Yezdi expects 
a much more clearly worked out conception of 
that small number of points which are at one 
time presented to his range of vision. But when 
he has turned his glasses in another direction 
the first set of ideas is blotted out, and the 
second group as a whole may be absolutely 
contradictory to the first, so long as it is con- 
sistent in itself. The result is that he is 
absolutely untouched by criticism which appears 
to the European crushing and final. Then the 
missionary gets to regard him as an imbecile, 
and presents to him an idea which he has not 
clearly thought out himself. The Persian turns 
the tables on him in a moment, and frequently 
the missionary is greatly surprised. The only 
way to meet this difficulty is both to prepare 
and select your arguments carefully, and, generally 



192 NO TERM FOR CONSCIENCE [chap. 

speaking, you can never use with the ordinary 
Shiah Mussulman an argument that contains 
more than three steps. As to the difficulties 
of the language, some have been previously 
mentioned, and to these must be added the 
entire absence of words conveying certain im- 
portant conceptions. Perhaps we are not quite 
so badly off as the missionary to the Esquimaux, 
who has to explain our Lord's parables to people 
who know of hardly any domestic animals at 
all, and who have never seen a tree ; nor is 
the Persian so intensely dull as the inhabitants 
of the Indian district where the mirzas declared 
that the meaning of the " field to bury strangers 
in" could not possibly be understood unless the 
strangers were described as dead ; but to find 
a people who are sufficiently advanced to have 
an elaborate system of psychology, and yet have 
no term for conscience is a difficulty of almost 
a new kind. Between this sort of deficiency on 
the one hand, and on the other the impossibility 
of forming a sentence with an accurate meaning, 
or of making the meaning understood when it 
is formed, the missionary is sometimes inclined 
to wish the Persian language at the bottom of 
the sea. 



vi] PARABOLIC INTERPRETATION 193 

A very similar difficulty is to be found in the 
absolute denial, especially by the Babis, of any 
limitations to the use of parabolic language. I 
can best explain this by instancing a very common 
Babi argument, by which it is attempted to 
minimise the extraordinary nature of Christ's 
ministry, this being a preparatory step to the 
advancement of the claims of Behau'llah. Christ 
on one occasion said, "Let the dead bury their 
dead." In this text it is obvious that the word 
" dead " refers in one case rather to spiritual than 
to physical death. Consequently, they say, the 
miracles of raising the dead to life which are 
recounted in the Gospels are not to be taken 
as referring to physical death either. The obvious 
answer, that parabolic language, when used 
without any warning and under circumstances 
that make it certain to be interpreted as literal 
statement, is simply another name for falsehood, 
entirely fails to appeal to the Persian mind, even 
though it is pointed out in addition that, in the 
stories of the raising of the dead, local colour 
and special circumstances are added in such a 
way that the details of the stories do not admit 
of any intelligible allegoric interpretation. 

In meeting this kind of position the difficulty 
2b 



194 DISTRUST OF EVIDENCE [chap. 

is occasionally increased by the Babi contro- 
versialist being aware that certain European 
objectors hold a very similar opinion about our 
Lord's ministry. I think, however, that I am 
right in saying that no European critic has ever 
attempted to take up what seems to us the 
impossible position of accepting the absolute 
truth and inspiration of the New Testament, 
which the Babi fully admits, while at the same 
time trying to explain away the plain statements 
of the Gospels. 

Another difficulty is that some, and those not 
always the least intelligent, of the Yezdi enquirers 
mistrust absolutely all reported evidence. This 
is after all only the logical result of life in a 
Persian town. To say that a certain point, even 
the most elementary, such as the fact of our Lord's 
appearance in Palestine nineteen hundred years ago, 
is a matter of history, or is universally acknow- 
ledged, means to the Yezdi absolutely nothing. 
Sometimes, however, when you are able to explain 
that historical criticism is not an impossibility 
in Europe, this extreme scepticism partially sub- 
sides, particularly when you are able to show that 
the demand for direct evidence is not altogether 
impossible to satisfy. 



vi] ATTACHMENT TO ISLAM 195 

Of course, too, there are difficulties in argu- 
ment arising from the intense ignorance of the 
Yezdi, and more particularly from his extremely 
limited ideas of the size of the world. For 
instance, when he is repeating the story that the 
text of the Bible was changed in the time of 
Mohammed, the verses referring to the prophet 
being eliminated, it is almost impossible to explain 
the enormous difficulty that would have attended 
such a proceeding. This must of course be 
the case in other places, but I venture to think 
that the peculiar nature of the Persian desert 
towns makes this state of mind compatible with 
a greater degree of intelligence than one would 
have believed possible. 

When everything has been said, the strong 
attachment felt by the Yezdi to Islam remains the 
greatest difficulty of all. It has been previously 
shown that Islam is much more than a creed, 
and much more than a set of commandments. 
Behind these things are a number of more or 
less connected ideas upon the relations of God 
and man, which have not only been accepted 
without question for generations, but are con- 
sidered by the Mussulman to be axiomatic and 
impossible to call in question. Also around Islam 



196 ATTACHMENT TO ISLAM [chap. 

there has grown up a system of domestic and 
social life and of personal habit, which fills up every 
moment of the day. Habits of personal cleanliness, 
the system of cooking food, the fashion of dress, 
and the method of speech are all more or less con- 
nected with Islam. The same thing is true of the 
more normal amusements of the Yezdi. There is a 
certain amount of singing and playing which is in 
direct contravention of Mohammedan law ; but the 
things which in the life of the people take the 
place of the concert-hall and of the theatre are the 
ruza-hhani, which is the recitation of religious 
poems by the Mohammedan mulla, and the 
Muharram festival, which is entirely religious, 
being a miracle-play depicting the martyrdom of 
the Imam Husain. Even the more usual street 
shows, which are presented by story-telling 
dervishes, are the property of a class possessing a 
peculiar religious status. Under these circum- 
stances who can wonder that to separate himself 
from Islam without leaving the country seems to 
the enquirer almost impossible ? Further, he is 
inclined to say that, if it is possible, it is only to be 
done by joining himself to the life of the Ferangi 
household. It is very difficult to explain to the 
Mussulman that Christianity is not a politico- 



vi.] DIFFICULTIES OF CONVERTS 197 

religious system like Islam, but it is still more 
difficult to make him understand that a certain 
amount of the Islamic system can in any way 
remain lawful to him when he becomes a 
Christian. 

The difficulty is really an enormous one. 
Men who would be ready to face death, if death 
was in the air, are not always ready to face boycott 
and petty persecution, their neighbours regarding 
them as unclean, and their new co-religionists, 
though not refusing to associate with them, having 
apparently no idea of providing them with a new 
home atmosphere. Those, too, who are dependent 
on their professions or trades feel that as Christians 
the friction with Islam will be so great that, 
even if they are not treated as infidels and at 
once turned adrift, their seeking of their liveli- 
hood will be a daily martyrdom, often extremely 
distressing to their newly - awakened religious 
feelings. 

All of the obvious solutions of this problem 
are almost as difficult as the difficulty itself. 
First of all, it might be possible to create an 
industrial mission, and to provide new employ- 
ment and new circumstances of life for the 
converts. Such a move would attract so much 



198 INDUSTRIAL MISSIONS [chap. 

attention in a town like Yezd that it might very 
possibly provoke a serious riot; and, even if it 
did not do this, it would involve an enormous 
financial loss. It would be impossible to get for 
such an enterprise the sympathy of the Persian 
authorities. The undertaking would be attacked 
by a continual succession of intrigues, and even 
without these disadvantages it is doubtful whether 
Europeans who had to deal with Persians in 
matters of trade without being primarily traders 
could possibly avoid bankruptcy after a very 
short period. Besides this if any such plan was 
started, the possibilities of the situation from the 
employe's point of view would so appeal to the 
Persian that numbers would come and profess 
conversion in order to reap their share in the 
benefits. It cannot be too fully pointed out 
that in Yezd the man who is not in earnest, and 
who is willing to deny sincerity of motive, risks 
absolutely nothing, even though he may consent 
to public or semi-public ceremonies. 

Another solution of the difficulty is to employ 
converts in the missionaries' households, but after 
all this only provides for a certain number, and 
those only of certain classes. If the less satis- 
factory servants and employe's were continually 



vi] EMPLOYMENT BY MISSIONARIES 199 

ousted to make room for converts, a further very 
serious difficulty would be created, as there would 
be a number of people in the town doing their 
best to stir up trouble. The position is further 
complicated by the number of servants in a 
Persian household being very much fewer than 
the usual number in an Indian one. At the 
same time this solution of the difficulty, when 
it is possible, is certainly the best one. Converts 
who are employed by Christians are in South 
Persia a far from unsatisfactory class, particularly 
when they have given up more remunerative 
work. When the converts are left too much to 
fend for themselves the results are not always 
satisfactory, for even when they pull through, a 
feeling of not having been properly treated is 
sometimes left behind, which is not helpful to 
their Christian life. Consequently, I feel that, at 
the present stage, converts should, when possible, 
be drawn carefully into the organisation of the 
mission or the mission households, which would 
also have the effect of increasing the missionary 
staff. If it is due to our faith in Christ, as it 
most surely is, to send out every European man 
or woman who comes forward for mission work, 
and after prayerful and careful examination or 



200 ORGANISATION OF MISSIONS [chap. 

training still seems to be set apart for that work 
by God, surely in the Persian mission under 
present circumstances we might receive as fellow- 
workers those who after accepting the Gospel are 
thrown upon our hands by the same God. Later 
on it may become possible to connect the Persian 
mission stations with an industrial organisation 
at Bombay, or God may show some other similar 
way out of the apparent cul-de-sac. But the 
whole difficulty is so great, that perhaps it would 
be well to keep it in mind when we are 
determining the organisation of missions, for 
some methods of work tend to absorb natives of 
various classes, while others show no tendency 
to do so. In spite of the immense difficulties 
in the way of regular industrial missions, some 
Persian missionaries hold that they ought to be 
started, under the charge of thoroughly competent 
men sent out for the purpose. My personal 
opinion is that, if it was the main intention that 
such work should lead to the formation of an 
industrial community of converts earning their 
own living and paying their own expenses, there 
would probably be a great deal of disappointment 
about the results. If, however, such work was 
attempted it would have to be done in very close 



vi] INDUSTRIAL CLASSES 201 

conjunction with the strongest of the medical 
missions, and a responsibility for backing it 
up would have to rest with the doctors in 
charge. On the other hand, the establishment of 
industrial training classes under competent teachers, 
not necessarily European, would not be open to 
the same objections. It would really be a develop- 
ment of school work, and the primary object would 
be the assistance of the native population and 
the spreading of the Gospel message amongst 
them. Like other branches of mission work it 
would be worked at as small a loss as possible. 
But it would not be a settlement of the great 
difficulty, though we might reasonably expect it 
to prove a step towards such a settlement, for it 
would obviously put us in a position to consider 
further steps as occasion offered. After all, 
missionary work is the attempting of the im- 
possible in dependence on the Almighty, and 
under such circumstances to attempt to look too 
far ahead is absurd. 

In the face of these difficulties it is really 
wonderful that missionary work in Yezd should 
have gone so far forward. There are, of course, 
certain elements in Yezdi character and ideas 

that have proved a very great assistance to the 

2 c 



202 SHIAH'S VIEWS ON BIBLE [chap. 

missionary. Yezdis are always ready to talk 
about religion, and they are thoroughly sociable. 
Then they are always interested in new ideas, 
and are quick to adapt themselves to circum- 
stances. Further, the ordinary Shiah's ideas about 
the Bible, that is, the Law of Moses and the 
Gospel, are somewhat uncertain. He generally 
regards it as the Word of God, for he does 
not consider that the alterations which he 
believes to have been made in the text are 
sufficient to rob the Book of its whole value. 
Altogether, his ideas are much less stereotyped 
than those of the Sunni, and it is often possible 
to convince him that the Book is correct 
throughout. 

Then there is the extreme intelligence of the 
Shiah in grasping single points. Some mission- 
aries work upon this, and also on his essential 
weakness, by teaching him Christian ideas, and 
not pointing out their contradiction to those 
contained in Islam until he has had time to 
grasp their value. I am inclined to think that 
although this method of teaching may be 
possible with people who do not come primarily 
as enquirers, it is not so suitable for the Yezdi 
who comes to you for discussion or teaching on 



vi] NEED OF DISTINCTIVE TEACHING 203 

the Christian religion. If you want to gain a 
particular point with a Persian, for instance if 
you wish to dissuade him from some particular 
act of cruelty, do not use too long an argument, 
but put what you want to say and your reasons 
for saying it as shortly as possible. Even if he 
does not recognise your principle generally, he 
may very possibly accept it for the particular 
occasion, if your argument is a plain and short 
one ; but when an enquirer after Christianity 
comes to you, he comes to you as to a follower 
of Christ. He does not want your advice about 
any particular part of his conduct; he wants 
to know why you follow Christ rather than 
Mohammed. As a matter of fact you have to 
teach him more, but the attempt to teach him 
less generally produces a strange state of bewilder- 
ment, in which the man is not very likely to 
obey any explicit direction you may have given 
him. The man wants, not necessarily contro- 
versy, but teaching of a controversial nature, 
opposed to Mohammedanism, that is to the 
doctrine of the supremacy of Mohammed's re- 
ligion, and he generally wants such teaching to 
be based on some kind of argument, and not 
on mere assertion. I think this last statement 



204 ENQUIRERS AND NON-ENQUIRERS [chap. 

is less true of the women. But in our early days 
at Yezd, when Dr White and I were both strug- 
gling with the Persian language, and all of the 
teaching had to be done by Armenian hospital 
assistants, who, although admirable fellows, had 
perhaps not wholly grasped exactly what was 
wanted, we had strong evidence of what I am 
now saying. For the moment I could speak the 
language and began to see something of the people, 
man after man would come to me, all with the 
same question, " We have heard a great deal ; a 
great deal of Christian teaching, and a great deal 
about Jesus Christ ; but Sahib, matlab chist ? " 
which may be translated, "What is the point of 
it all ? " 

From what has been written it will be obvious 
that one of the most essential points in dealing 
with Persian visitors is to understand thoroughly 
who are enquirers and who are not. Those who 
are not primarily enquirers may often be brought 
to Christianity almost as easily as those who come 
as searchers after truth, for when you get to know 
Persians, you can do much with them through 
personal influence, and indeed, when all has been 
written about ways and methods, the thing most 
used of God in Persia is the personality of 



vl] NEED OF DISCRIMINATION 205 

particular missionaries. Curiously enough, it is 
not always the popular personality by which the 
Persian is most affected in big matters, but he 
is enormously affected by what we call character. 
As to enquirers, it seems to me that no harm 
is done by being very careful whom we accept 
as such. I must own that I have not always 
worked on that principle, and there was a time 
when I was under the impression that to refuse 
to see a visitor, or to keep him waiting a quarter of 
an hour, would be to derogate from the importance 
of the message that I had to give, and when I 
would plunge without hesitation into the argu- 
ments for the Christian position with any one who 
asked me to do so. Possibly at the time it was 
the best thing to do, for it was not until I had 
pursued this plan that I gained any experience 
to enable me to discriminate; but I should 
certainly hesitate to advise anybody to follow 
my example. Unless a man professes some 
serious and practical reason for wanting to know 
why he ought to become a Christian it is not 
always advisable to tell him. Latterly, when I 
was approached on the subject of Christianity, 
I always replied by asking the enquirer's reasons 
for searching, and also by asking of what he was 



206 NEED OF SYSTEMATIC TEACHING [chap. 

in search, and, if from his answer it was obvious 
that he was in search of something which could 
be found outside Christianity, I always told him 
so. You must remember that such a man 
naturally continues talking with you, generally 
on religious subjects, and indeed you have then 
the opportunity of explaining what Christianity 
really is, without the necessity of controversially 
proving its truth. He is also just as likely to 
return to your house as a man with whom you 
have entered into regular argument, and I am 
quite convinced that he is not less likely to 
appreciate Christianity at its true value than if 
you had allowed him to consider that any one 
was a proper applicant for admission into the 
Christian Church. 

As a general rule, the thing which seems to 
me to succeed best with Yezdi enquirers is 
controversial teaching of a systematic kind. 
Pure controversy is sometimes necessary to remove 
particular objections to the Gospel message, but 
it has to be followed by regular instruction. On 
the other hand, instruction that does not bring 
out very clearly the contrast between Islam and 
Christianity is liable not to be understood. Persian 
enquirers seem as a rule to want help in under- 



vi.] NEED OF EXAMPLE 207 

standing the meaning of Scripture. Several 
Persian converts have been brought in through 
the instrumentality of the Bible without the 
help of the missionary; but such cases are not 
common. 

Then one of the most important points that 
the missionary has to bear in mind is that the 
Persian expects a concrete example of the 
Christian life. He is much more able to under- 
stand what he sees than what he simply reads, 
and he is anxious to know how the whole scheme 
works out, for he wishes to understand how much 
of the practical teaching of Christianity is really 
intended for everyday use. He is aware that 
in his own religion a good deal can be explained 
away by the mulla, and also that rather different 
conduct is expected from the clerical and non- 
clerical classes respectively. It is true that in 
Islam this difference is not so great as one would 
expect, but the Mussulman clerics as a class are 
certainly more particular than the laity about 
prayers, fasts, and attendance at the mosques. 
When a Persian sees the Christian colony entirely 
at variance with the missionary households as 
to religious customs and ideas, he naturally comes 
to the conclusion that as a Christian layman he 



208 NEED OF EXAMPLE [chap. 

will have to conform much more to the practice 
of the laity than to the practice of the clerical 
class, under which heading he will include all 
missionaries. For this reason it seems to me that 
it is lamentable for missionaries, clerical or other- 
wise, to separate themselves too much from the 
social life of the European colony. Work in 
such towns as Yezd ought to be primarily church 
extension, and when both missionaries and other 
Europeans realise this fact, and do their best to 
show the native that Christ is a real force in the 
concrete European life of the present day, the 
hopefulness of mission prospects becomes increased 
a thousandfold. But the task before the missionary 
is a rather more complex one, for his duty is not 
only to present Christ as a living force in his 
everyday life, but he ought also to try and avoid 
all conduct which he learns by experience will seem 
to the native not to tally with the teaching of 
Scripture. In other words, he must be ready to 
give up lawful things which he is unable to justify 
to those whom he is striving to teach. Such a 
determination will demand not only strength of 
purpose, but also careful and prayerful Bible study ; 
but unless the determination is made, the work 
will inevitably suffer. 



vi.] VIEW OF CHRISTIAN STATES 209 

One unusually intelligent Behai, who, I am 
glad to say, afterwards became a Christian, once 
brought forward an objection to Christianity, 
which I think is worth closely noting. He said, 
"You point to the comparative prosperity of 
Europe as an evidence of the truth of Christianity. 
I, who have been in India, do not doubt that 
Europeans have accomplished something. But it 
seems to me that what has been done has been 
done by the State organisation, which rests upon 
the law of retaliation, and is therefore in direct 
opposition to the law of Christ. Consequently 
these successes prove not the truth of Christianity, 
but rather the power of work done on exactly 
opposite principles." My answer, which was 
accepted, was to point out that although Christ 
in the Sermon on the Mount showed that the 
principle of retaliation was not to govern tht 
actions of individual Christians, Christ's religion 
both as expounded by Himself before Pilate, 
and as presented by His apostles in the Epistles, 
recognises the power of the force-using governor 
as that of God's minister. I also pointed out 
that the best European State organisations had 
only been made possible by the Church. How- 
ever, the objection was certainly one which a 

2 D 



210 DOUBLE MOTIVES [chap. 

serious enquirer might be pardoned for advancing, 
and it is interesting as showing the trend of the 
Persian's mind when he comes into contact with 
European customs and Christian ideas. 

There remain several difficulties, connected 
rather with the acceptance of converts than with 
the making of them. The Persian is exceedingly 
impulsive, and a great many enquirers who are 
really in earnest ask to be baptized without 
realising all that it will mean. This, I suppose, 
is a difficulty one finds everywhere. A difficulty 
more peculiar to Persia has already been mentioned 
in a previous chapter, namely, the feeling that 
two motives are better than one, and that the 
desire for earthly as well as spiritual gain 
only makes a man a more earnest applicant. In 
Yezd it is impossible to treat people who have 
this feeling as radically unsound, but of course 
they have to be taught that it is impossible to 
become a Christian from the two points of view, 
and that if they intend to make Christianity pay 
from the earthly point of view, they will lose 
the spiritual benefit. The question may perhaps 
be asked, how is it that in a Mohammedan 
country there can be supposed to be any temporal 
advantage in becoming a Christian ? The answer 



vi] VIEW OF CHRISTIANITY 211 

to this is that the Yezdi Persian is accustomed 
not so much to religious as to politico-religious 
systems : so he regards the whole European 
colony with their native servants, Parsi and 
Mussulman, as all belonging to Christianity and 
under the protection of the Christian authorities, 
and this idea is very largely kept up by the 
servants themselves. Servants in a Christian 
household will almost invariably join in any form 
of Christian worship, and it would be impossible 
to explain to them that they did not to some 
extent participate in the spiritual advantages of 
Christianity. They recognise, however, a distinct 
difference between taking service and accepting 
baptism. Probably in their heart of hearts they 
believe that taking service is temporary, and 
accepting baptism permanent. Amongst people 
who are accustomed to a view of the household 
largely corresponding to the patriarchal view, 
such notions cannot be altogether eradicated. 
So enquirers, when they first ask for baptism, 
do not necessarily see the enormous danger, but 
only realise that they will be brought into close 
touch with a community that seems to them to 
include other natives who wear the same dress as 
themselves. Of course when the enquirers are 



212 VIEW OF CHRISTIANITY [chap. 

junior members of strict Mussulman households, or 
in other equally unfavourable circumstances, they 
realise that their peril will be extreme ; but heads 
of households sometimes expect much less danger. 
Then again, the Mussulman is accustomed to 
secret religions, for taqiya, the denial of faith in 
times of danger, has always been considered lawful 
by Shiahs, and it is used by the Babis. Although 
the enquirer learns at a very early date that 
such conduct is regarded by the Christian as 
sin, it takes him some time to realise the exact 
degree to which his Christianity is likely to be 
public. Lastly, although he may be told that 
converts are not under consular protection, in 
a country where law means so little and custom 
so much he is not likely to understand how 
real are the boundaries of treaty rights. This 
will perhaps give some idea of the amount of 
misapprehension, both as to the meaning of 
Christianity and also as to the danger of accept- 
ing it, which may possibly exist after a con- 
siderable amount of talk and enquiry ; nor would 
the dangers of embracing Christianity be made 
altogether obvious by a single riot or martyrdom ; 
for the whole operation of Persian law, or want 
of law, is irregular and spasmodic, and in a town 



vi.] ADMISSION OF CONVERTS 213 

like Yezd things which are foolhardy in January- 
are often attended with no more than ordinary 
risk in June. 

Under these circumstances the question of the 
admission of professing converts to baptism must 
necessarily be extremely difficult. In towns where 
the mission work is in a pioneering stage it has 
to be primarily settled by the European mission- 
ary ; and not until the difficulty has been by him 
sufficiently solved to admit of the foundation of 
a church, can much of this burden be placed upon 
other shoulders. Sometimes he may have the good 
fortune to have among his earlier converts a wholly 
trustworthy man, who, from his greater experience 
of native character and knowledge of what is going 
on in the town, can advise and counsel him, but 
even then the main responsibility must rest with 
the European. The difficulty is greatly enhanced 
by the fact that the missionary in Persia does 
not really live amongst the people, and that the 
clerical missionary usually sees enquirers only in 
his own house. Under these circumstances it is 
perhaps well not to apply too many tests, for it 
is not easy to get a test which is really sound. 
One test which is sometimes advocated is the 
practice of keeping the catechumen waiting for 



214 ADMISSION OF CONVERTS [chap. 

a long period ; but the result of this is frequently 
to deter those who are weakly in earnest, whereas 
a Persian who has a worldly end to serve is 
capable of extraordinary patience. It is sometimes 
urged that an unsound convert brings the whole 
band of native Christians and enquirers into 
extreme danger ; but I am inclined to think that, 
in the circumstances of our pioneer missions as 
they at present exist, a totally unsound catechumen 
may do almost as much harm as even an unsound 
convert. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that 
the only way to deal with the situation is to 
baptize all persons who after full instruction, not 
too hurriedly given, profess conversion and demand 
baptism, and even after baptism to observe a 
certain degree of caution towards the newly 
baptized. If it is absolutely proved that such 
converts are behaving in a manner that is not 
only weak but actively hostile towards Christ's 
cause, they must be excommunicated; but the 
most necessary point of all is that as much 
attention should be paid to the instruction of 
converts as to the instruction of catechumens. It 
is of course impossible to expect that all points 
of character should be absolutely changed after 
baptism, and nobody ought to be cut loose from 



vi] DIFFICULTY OF PROBLEM 215 

the Church in a place like Yezd, unless he is 
actively hostile ; and, even when actual hostility 
has been proved, an opportunity ought to be 
given for the man's return. 

As to the advisability of giving converts 
material help, a great deal may be said against 
it in theory, but in practice it is at times 
absolutely necessary. After all, it is impossible 
to avoid mistakes, and the attempt to avoid all 
mistakes in detail is only too likely to lead to the 
more general one of entirely failing to present 
Christ in any form whatsoever. 

The conclusions which have been stated in this 
chapter are not intended to be taken as the 
fully thought out summing up of an extremely 
complex and difficult problem. They are the 
result of rather less than six years' experience 
of the mission -field. But just as there is a" value 
in first impressions of country, so there is a value 
in first impressions of difficulties in work. At 
five and a half years first impressions of country 
have passed away, and consequently the contents 
of the earlier chapters of this book, which deal 
with country and surroundings, can hardly be so 
characterised ; but at this period the difficulties of 
mission work are only just beginning to spread 



216 DIFFICULTY OF PROBLEM [chap. vi. 

themselves out before one's eyes. So when we 
pass from country to character, from character 
to opportunity, and from opportunity to 
suggestion, we pass from subjects with 
which it is comparatively easy to become 
familiar to subjects which need life-long and 
careful study. I have tried in writing this 
chapter to eliminate from the style that con- 
sciousness of uncertainty which is frequently 
so irritating to the reader; but in doing this 
I should explain that I am fully conscious 
of the superficial nature of much that I have 
written. At the same time, the view that 1 
have gained of mission work in Yezd is a full 
one compared with that which is possible for 
people at a distance, and for that reason it may 
be considered worth stating. 



CHAPTER VII 

Getting into touch with the natives — The missionary"^ style 
of life — Visiting and receiving visitors — Philanthropic 
work — Poor relief — School work — Medical work. 

In Persia the missionary has no right to teach 
and preach in public places. He cannot take 
up his stand in the bazaars and proclaim the 
Gospel. He can talk to the people who come 
to his house, and to a certain extent he can talk 
with crowds in open caravanserais or in the 
villages, but anything approximating to public 
teaching is only done on sufferance, and without 
any established licence. So the ordinary evangel- 
istic missionary's first task is to get on terms 
of social intercourse with a sufficiently large 
number of natives to afford him a field for work. 
Afterwards he may arrange for services, either 
in his own house or in the house of some other 
European, and so his visitors will become con- 
gregations and his talks sermons. 



2 E 



217 



cy 



218 THE PERSIAN REVIVAL [ohap. 

Now, although it is obvious that such work 
can only be carried on when it is acceptable to 
the natives, the work may be accepted for very 
various reasons. If the missionary knows enough 
of the Persian language, of native ideas, and 
above all of the message he has come to deliver, 
he will, in a town like Yezd, without the help of 
school or medical work, attract a large number 
of people to his house. In Persia there is just 
now a great seeking after truth, which, though 
due in part to traceable causes, seems in its 
entirety to be simply one of those mysterious 
movements which God evokes at certain seasons 
in all lands for the furtherance of His Kingdom. 
One class attracted by such a man as I have 
described would therefore be real enquirers, and 
with them would be mixed a second class of 
people who have been called religious sightseers. 
These men though not apparently so good a field 
for work as the first class, would still, if properly 
handled and directed, prove a perfectly possible 
sphere for serious missionary operations. So also 
would the third class of callers, who would be 
men not primarily interested in religious questions 
at all, but who would nevertheless follow the 
fashion of calling on the newly-arrived foreigner, 



vil] OPPORTUNITIES 219 

and would be generally willing to follow any line 
of conversation that was agreeable to their host. 
Of course a man who did not intend to engage 
in school or medical work would naturally be 
careful to take full advantage of such contacts 
as these, and of others that he would naturally 
make from time to time ; he would order his life 
in such a way as to get day by day into close 
touch with the people of the town ; and he would 
equip himself with a material outfit that would 
enable him to exchange courtesies with natives 
of various classes. I am not speaking of a man 
who elected to spend most of his time itinerating 
in the villages : of such work as this I have little 
experience : but I am convinced that a stationary 
missionary, fairly well equipped at all points, 
does not in a town like Yezd absolutely need the 
help of more elaborate aids to enable him to 
get into touch with his work. To suppose this 
is to ignore the extraordinary preparation which 
God has made in Persia for the preaching of the 
Gospel. 

Before passing on to the very real demand 
for missionaries of a somewhat different kind, it 
will be well to mention some points connected 
with the life of the European missionary in the 



220 STYLE OF LIVING [chap. 

country. There are probably very few men or 
women at present working in Persia, who have 
not at the outset of their work felt doubtful 
whether the details of their household life could 
not be simplified, so as to bring them into closer 
touch with the poorer part of the population. It 
is hardly possible to write a serious book on 
missionary conditions without expressing an opinion 
on this question. There is, I think, no doubt 
that it is a great mistake for a missionary in 
Persia to be known as one who is leading the life 
of a wealthy man. It is considered by many of 
the enquirers to be absolutely inconsistent with 
Christianity, and I am not sure that this judgment 
is incorrect. Temporary advantages might some- 
times be gained by such a reputation, but in the 
end the work would suffer. 

Generally speaking, however, it is the habit of 
missionaries in the Persian stations to live as 
economically as is compatible with European 
style, so far as their strictly personal expenses 
are concerned. Many things which appear at 
first sight to be luxurious prove on closer acquaint- 
ance to be mere substitutes for the ordinary 
necessaries of the simplest English life. Other 
things prove to be absolutely essential to health 



vil] STYLE OF LIVING 221 

in a hot climate, while yet another class are not 
exactly necessary, but they are comforts of the 
cheapest kind. People who are economising 
seriously in Eastern lands have to put up with so 
much that is really difficult that they make a great 
mistake if they unnecessarily deny themselves 
small things which can be had for the asking, 
simply because they have regarded such things as 
luxuries in England. But although the existence 
of careful economies on European lines may be 
sufficient to prevent an intelligent enquirer from 
thinking that the missionary is untrue to his creed, 
such economies can never bring the missionary into 
touch with the poor of the East in the same way 
that living in a model lodging-house might under 
some circumstances bring a home clergyman into 
close touch with the English poor. The real analogy 
would be for the missionary to live as an Eastern 
dervish, or as a native of the artisan class, and 
although this might be sometimes helpful and 
advisable, the principle of its general advisability 
could not be accepted. To begin with, it 
would be only possible for a bachelor, and, in 
a country where no man can possibly give in- 
dividual instruction to women, the bachelor is at 
a great disadvantage. Secondly, it must not be 



222 STYLE OF LIVING [chap. 

forgotten that, although the missionary living the 
life of an European has been accepted in Persia, 
the missionary wearing Persian dress and living 
like a native has not yet been accepted, and 
would probably find himself not only at variance 
with the consular authorities but also regarded 
with a great deal of suspicion by the natives them- 
selves. In a matter of this kind it is impossible to 
ignore apostolic precedent, and one thing that 
cannot but strike the student of the missionary 
methods of the period covered by the Acts of the 
Apostles is that the apostles generally, and notably 
St Paul, seem never to have adopted a method of 
missionary work which would have seemed to the 
inhabitants of the district to be outre, when some 
more natural method of work was equally possible. 
Nothing would strike the Persian as more outre 
than for the ordinary European to drop the form 
of life which is expected of the Ferangi, and to 
adopt the manners and customs of the native of 
Persia, particularly as he would probably have to 
periodically re-assume European clothes. If he 
was going to work among the Mussulmans as a 
Christian missionary, I suppose he would have to 
choose between life as an Armenian and life as a 
Mussulman. Life as an Armenian would have 



vii.} STYLE OF LIVING 223 

this advantage over the other, that he would 
not be supposed to be hiding his religion. But 
the life of the Armenian in a town like Yezd 
is the life of a stranger in a foreign town, and 
would not bring the missionary into very much 
closer touch with the Mussulmans than life as a 
European. By assuming the dress and manners of 
an Armenian of any class whatsoever, one would 
simply forfeit the respect that is usually paid by 
the Persian to the Ferangi, without gaining any- 
thing that could not have been gained by other 
and more ordinary methods. On the other hand, 
life as a Mussulman would be attended with serious 
difficulties. In a town where there was a Ferangi 
colony wearing European dress, such a man would 
very possibly be regarded as a soldier is regarded 
who attempts to mix with the enemy without his 
uniform. I can conceive circumstances which 
might make an experiment of this kind worth 
trying, but it would be madness for any one to 
attempt it for missionary purposes, who had not 
extraordinary experience of the country and a full 
mastery over the language. 

I think then we must take it for granted that 
the kind of life which missionaries are living in 
Persia at the present time will have to be accepted, 



224 VISITS [chap. 

with such modifications as future events and 
further experience may suggest, as the normal 
method for Europeans who wish to carry on 
missionary work in the country. There are one or 
two tasks which lie before the pioneer missionary 
which seem to be made more easy by the posses- 
sion of an ordinary European household. First of 
all, he has to be prepared to work amongst the 
European colony. Secondly, it is well for him to 
possess sufficient influence and standing in the 
town to be able to help the converts or enquirers 
in time of trouble. Thirdly, he wants to be in 
touch with all classes of natives, and this would 
probably only be possible for a man who stood 
in the highest rank as a native, or for one who 
stood outside native rank altogether. 

Every missionary has to do a good deal of 
visiting. All visits have not got to be returned, 
but a certain number must be. It is well not to 
return all visits, for otherwise it is difficult to get 
secret enquirers to come to your house, or people 
who are too poor to receive you in their own 
houses. The usual Persian habit is never to pay 
a visit without first of all asking leave, but though 
this rule has to be observed towards others, it is 
best to make it clear that your own house is an 



vil] VISITORS 225 

office, and only to insist on notice for visits of 
civility when they are made by people who are 
likely to prove awkward. Paying visits to Persian 
houses has a certain value to the missionary, as it 
introduces him to Persian life and manners, and 
puts him on easier terms with the natives, but 
it seldom affords the evangelistic missionary who 
is working amongst men his best opportunity for 
direct missionary work. There is too much 
publicity, and too many interruptions. The best 
missionary work is usually done on one's own 
premises ; and in Yezd I have known enquirers 
and visitors begin coming at six o'clock in the 
morning, and go on almost without intermission 
till ten o'clock at night ; but at that time I was 
connected with scholastic work, which, although 
requiring only superintendence, advertised my 
presence in the town to a considerable degree. 
One of the things that is therefore most necessary 
in a place like Yezd for the evangelistic missionary 
is an absolutely well-ordered household. Every- 
thing ought to go by clockwork. Almost every 
visitor has to be treated as an ordinary social 
guest, and unless the arrangements are nearly 
perfect, either his attention or the missionary's 

will be called away from the conversation. A 

2 F 



226 VISITORS [chap. 

missionary in such a position ought to pay close 
attention to the number and description of his tea- 
cups and pipes. One class of visitors ought to be 
properly served with silver-mounted hookahs and 
three tiny cups of very hot tea, brought in at 
intervals of ten minutes, and this without any 
previous notice to the servant. Another class 
of visitor ought to have a European cup of tea 
holding about three times as much as the Persian 
cup, and a box of cigarettes, so that he and his 
host may be able to talk without further interrup- 
tion till the end of the interview. A third class 
of visitor, who has given notice, ought to be 
prepared for beforehand, and served with iced 
sherbet. Then again, a decision has to be made 
according to the status of the guest as to whether 
the missionary shall be served with tea at the 
same time or not. All this requires the most 
careful training of servants, and any inattention to 
detail may produce an atmosphere which makes 
teaching exceedingly difficult. Further, the 
servants have to know who should be shown 
into a private room, and who can be allowed to 
mix with other guests. These are just a few of 
the minor points which are nevertheless of real 
importance. To come to points which are 



SCENES IN YEZDI LIFE. 

The centre of these three pictures represents two men smoking 
opium. Behind them is a qalian, or hookah, for tobacco ; in front 
is a sherbet bowl, and also a small tea-table with sweets underneath. 

The picture on the left represents two men ; one holding a 
rosary, and the other holding a hookah. 

The single figure on the right is a Jew, with his book for 
divining. The Persians use the Jews as diviners a good deal. 



vil] SERVANTS 227 

obviously more serious. Servants have to be 
procured who can act with firmness when people 
attempt to take liberties, and who are at the same 
time absolutely civil. Servants in a Christian 
household have to be good-tempered ; and in order 
to effect this they have to be kept well occupied 
without being overworked, in a house where the 
chief work is meeting emergencies. They have 
to be taught some consistent and systematic line 
that is to be observed in dealing with the count- 
less beggars who every day come to your house. 
They have to be rendered as truthful as possible in 
every matter connected with the missionary's 
business. They have to be paid a rate of wages 
which will make honesty and contentment possible, 
and which will neither spoil the market, nor be 
incompatible with reasonable economy. It is 
needless to say very much more about these 
matters ; sufficient has already been said to make 
it plain that the problem of household arrangement 
is an exceedingly difficult one, particularly as the 
servants sleep in their own houses at a distance, 
all but one, who stays for the night ; and they 
generally expect to go home for their mid-day 
meal. My own impression is that as the evangel- 
istic missionary's house is almost his parish, he 



228 VISITING HOURS [chap. 

may be excused if he thinks right to expend a 
very great deal of time over its arrangements, and 
to consider this just as much missionary work as 
the teaching of enquirers. If the missionary 
intends to aim at anything that is likely to be 
satisfactory in this matter, he certainly needs an 
enormous degree of faith, and will do well to make 
his efforts in this direction the subject of very 
earnest prayer. 

Another difficulty in seeing enquirers in the 
house is the arrangement of times. Missionaries 
are sometimes blamed for not sufficiently con- 
sorting with Europeans in the ordinary amuse- 
ments of the colony, but there is one great 
difficulty about this. The times when you 
naturally take exercise in the East are the 
times when the native artisan or shopkeeper is 
off work. Supposing that the evangelistic 
missionary is seldom at home at such times as 
these, the more industrious Persians get to 
regard him as inaccessible, and his enquirers 
begin to consist of people who for some reason 
or other have very little to do. It is hardly 
necessary to enter into the difficulties that may 
follow. 

We have been hitherto speaking only of 



vii.] PHILANTHROPIC WORK 229 

directly evangelistic methods of missionary work ; 
but almost all missionaries have something to do 
with philanthropic work also. These philanthropic 
efforts are not solely undertaken as means to an 
end. In most cases they are treated as an end 
in themselves by the missionary, and generally 
speaking they are things which could not well 
be left undone. Medical missionaries will tell 
you that their standing orders are to heal the 
sick and preach the Gospel ; but I think we 
may say very much more generally that the 
presentation of the Gospel without adequate and 
proportionate care for the minds and bodies of 
those surrounding us, would be impossible. For 
the Gospel is the message of our Saviour, and 
any message that was so delivered would entirely 
fail to represent that Saviour's attitude. I doubt 
whether any one would call in question this aspect 
of the case, but when we come to discuss how 
much philanthropic work is really necessary, we 
are face to face with a difficult problem. In 
matters like this the decision must depend not 
only upon the needs of the people with whom 
the missionaries are brought in contact, but also 
upon the nature of the church or congregation 
of Christians that supports them, and whose 



230 NATIVE EXPECTATIONS [chap. 

material as well as spiritual force they are 
appointed to convey to the mission field. There 
is a great difference between the position of a 
band of men sent out by an infinitesimal body 
of earnest Christians who have the greatest 
difficulty in subscribing the means of their 
support, and that of a band sent out by an 
exceedingly wealthy Christian church. 

Present - day missionaries sent out by the 
Church Missionary Society have passed outside 
the conditions of the first class, but they cannot 
be said to fully belong to the second. They are 
supported by a large number of people, but those 
who give most are generally those whose purses 
are least elastic. In the countries to which they 
go they are treated with the greatest courtesy 
by British officials, and accepted as representatives 
of the religion of England by their fellow-country- 
men. Naturally the native expects more from 
them than they are really able to give, and this 
increases the difficulty when they have to decide 
what they are bound to do as ministers of Christ 
and as representatives of those who send them, 
for the people committed to their charge. 
Naturally, and I think rightly, they do not 
wholly shut their eyes to the attitude and 



vii.] NATIVE EXPECTATIONS 231 

expectations of the natives. But, unfortunately, 
the Persians think that there ought to be no 
difficulty about anything. The average native 
cannot get out of his head the idea that we are 
sent by the Government, or, if not by the 
Government, by the whole nation under its 
religious authorities. Those who know anything 
of English thought and feeling realise that 
foreign missions are now well established in the 
popular regard in England, and many Yezdis 
have a confused notion that in our country 
education, medical attendance, and support in 
old age are free to everybody, irrespective of 
class, and that as Christians we are all anxious 
to extend this system as far as we can to other 
nations. Of course views like this are variable, 
but it may be seen after a moment's considera- 
tion that in a country where the need for schools, 
for hospitals, and sometimes for relief is very 
real, and where the native is capable of believing 
such absurdities about the European as have 
been stated, if the missionary does not to a large 
extent take up the white man's burden, he is 
likely to lose any influence which God may 
have given him. Consequently I think we may 
say that the philanthropic work of missionaries 



RELIEF WORK [chap. 

in Persia must not only be regarded as a means 
to evangelisation, although this is an aspect 
which must largely determine its importance. 
Primarily it is a spiritual necessity created by 
three things, the comparative wealth of the 
Christians who send out the missionaries, the 
comparative poverty of the natives who are ready 
to be relieved, and the obvious commandment 
of Almighty God. 

Philanthropic work in Yezd is of three kinds ; 
medical work, school work, and the work of poor 
relief. The last is of course not recognised or 
supported by the Church Missionary Society. It 
is not within the scope of this book to deal with 
either of these three provinces of work in detail. 
All that I wish at present to explain is the way 
in which they seem to strike the Persian mind, 
and contribute to the general campaign of the 
mission. 

Relief work is of all the three most absolutely 
necessitated by the essential difference between 
the circumstances of the missionary and his 
supporters on the one hand, and those of a 
certain section of the natives on the other. But 
from an evangelistic standpoint it is the least 
directly productive in effect; so we have never 



vii] RELIEF WORK 

in Yezd used for this purpose any funds not 

specially subscribed for it, and such money has 

been collected almost entirely from the resident 

Europeans. There is a very great deal of terrible 

poverty in Persia which is not touched by the 

native charities. In Yezd, particularly towards 

the end of our stay in the town, things were 

in a very bad way. Yezd is really an industrial 

town, and not less than half of the grain supply 

comes from outside, chiefly from the Shiraz 

district. Most of the people are silk weavers. 

The silkworms used to be reared in the Yezd 

district, but the extreme droughts rendered this 

source of supply very insecure, and after the 

great famine that occurred some years ago there 

were not sufficient trees left for the business 

to be continued in this way. Cocoons were then 

brought from Rasht, and this system proved 

more satisfactory till lately, when the Rasht 

cocoons were diverted to France and Italy. 

The natural result was a great deal of poverty 

in Yezd, which was most felt among the 

poor Jews, who since the famine year have 

had no looms but have devoted themselves to 

winding and spinning the silk. Then again, after 

the Babi massacre of 1903, something had to be 

2 G 



234 RELIEF WORK [chap. 

done for the large number of widows and 
orphans. In this work the Europeans were by- 
no means alone, for the sufferers were helped 
both by the Babi merchants and also by a large 
number of the Parsis. The Parsis are generally 
very good in looking after their own poor, but 
the Mussulmans give money so indiscriminately 
that their charities cause more poverty than they 
relieve. Although the work of poor relief is not 
as a rule the direct means of bringing in converts, 
it helps the evangelistic work enormously 
by saving valuable time. Before it could be 
organised the number of begging enquirers who 
had the very smallest interest, if any, in the 
Gospel message, was so large as to seriously 
impede more important work. It is much easier 
and better to keep the two things more separate, 
and to be able to say to a man, " If you want to 
read with me, well and good, but if you want 
material help, then you must do so and so." This 
does not necessarily mean that the man who is 
relieved gets no chance of hearing the Gospel. 
The Jews, who came in a body, used always to 
have a chapter of the Gospel read to them by 
my mirza, and any man who showed a disposition 
to come as a real enquirer after his case had been 



vii.] DANGER OF MISCONSTRUCTION 235 

looked into and relieved was thoroughly welcomed. 
But the practice of trying to earn a Jcrcm by 
wasting hours of the missionary's time was 
effectually discouraged. 

I think also that the practice of separating 
poor relief as much as possible from the work 
with enquirers helps to explain to the native 
our view of the Christian Church. That some 
explanation is necessary is undoubted. During 
a severe famine in Kirman, over two hundred 
respectable Mussulmans, chiefly shopkeepers, 
came into the courtyard of the Consulate, and 
wanted to take protection under the British 
flag. Major Phillott was then Consul, and they 
explained to him that the price of bread was so 
prohibitive that they could not live any longer 
under the regulations of the Persian officials. 
Their leader was a Seyid. Major Phillott tried to 
explain that, although he sympathised with them 
greatly, he could do nothing for them unless it 
was to give them pecuniary help. He offered 
them a hundred krans, but they explained that 
they were not beggars. They further said that 
they were quite ready to become Christians if 
they could only get cheap bread. The end of 
the whole business was that the Consul paid an 



236 DANGER OF MISCONSTRUCTION [chap. 

unofficial visit to the Governor, and got him to 
promise that bread should be lowered to a more 
or less normal price by gradual reductions spread 
over a period of ten days. It is easy to understand 
that people who could go to a Consul in a famine 
and ask to be accepted as Christians in order 
to be able to buy bread at a fair price, thinking 
I suppose that Consular pressure would then be 
brought to bear upon the Governor on their 
behalf, might easily get an absolutely wrong 
notion of what was going on, if circumstances 
forced the missionary whose general business 
was seeing enquirers to use funds for poor 
relief without carefully separating these two 
branches of work. Even the practice of giving 
occasional relief to very poor enquirers from one's 
own purse is liable to great misinterpretation and 
abuse. Men will frequently come to you and 
ask for support, so as to enable them to leave 
their ordinary trades and listen to your teaching. 
Myself, I think that there are occasions when 
poor people have come from a distance and are 
certainly interested, where something of this 
kind has to be done, the man if possible being 
made to work for his money ; but it is easy to 
see how extremely dangerous it would be to 



vil] SYSTEM OF RELIEF 237 

encourage expectations, and how easily natives 
might get the idea that enquiry, and still more 
Christianity, entitled them to payment. Con- 
sequently, even if it could not be demonstrated 
that an actual saving of time was effected by 
making of poor relief a distinct organisation, 
there would be still a very great deal to be 
said for the practice. 

To administer poor relief in a town like Yezd 
on anything approaching to a sound system 
necessitates a great deal of reliance upon native 
information, and also a certain amount of high- 
handed dealing. Any food or clothing given 
must be of a class only acceptable to the very 
poorest, for otherwise the candidates for relief 
would be too numerous to deal with in even 
the roughest fashion. These considerations will 
explain two things ; first of all it will be 
readily understood that it is much easier to 
give systematic relief to members of a native 
community which is more or less down-trodden, 
such as the Jews or Babis ; for although a 
certain number of mistakes will be made in 
dealing with these peoples, they will be much 
less resented, and will militate much less against 
the success of the whole effort. Secondly, it 



238 PERSIAN VIEW OF RELIEF [chap. 

will be obvious that such relief will not call 
forth very much gratitude from the recipients. 
The very fact of investigation gives the idea 
to the Persian mind that charity is given 
grudgingly. Also it is impossible to handle a 
hundred screaming women in a small compound 
without a certain amount of what appears to 
be stern dealing, and after all in most instances 
the relief given is not as much as we ourselves 
would like it to be. Added to this, most of 
the people receiving relief are under the impres- 
sion that we are simply dispensing a small part 
of the large supplies sent to us for the purpose 
from abroad; and the Jews, of whom nearly a 
hundred families were receiving relief in Yezd 
last winter, believed that all that was given to 
them came from their co-religionists in Europe. 
The Babis of course looked upon the matter 
rather differently, but people who hold the 
theory of savabs in the way in which Persians 
do, have always a feeling that anything given 
to them means one for them and two for the 
giver. At the same time Persians who are 
interested in Christianity, and who are not 
themselves candidates for poor relief, see a great 
deal more in the system than do those who are 



vil] SCHOOL WORK 239 

more intimately concerned with it. They often 
understand that the willingness to take trouble 
in localising need, and the absolute recklessness 
with which we incur as many curses as blessings 
in the performance of our work, points to an 
utterly different ideal from that which is accepted 
in Islam ; and whether they are prepared to 
approve it or not, anything which shows the 
native part of the fundamental distinction between 
Islam and Christianity must in the end be of 
enormous assistance in missionary work. 

School work in Yezd is very greatly appreciated 
by a somewhat limited class, but it means con- 
tinual friction. The whole Mussulman clerical 
class as a body are keenly opposed to it. More 
curiously it aroused the greatest opposition from 
a small but not unimportant section of the 
Parsis. The Parsis are a puzzling people. For 
though they are strong, intelligent, thrifty, 
industrious, grateful, and comparatively honest, 
they seem to have a tendency to produce in their 
community a sufficient number of exceptionally 
disagreeable specimens of humanity to greatly 
check their natural progress. I myself believe 
that this is due to the prevalence of agnosticism 
amongst them, but, however that may be, the 



240 NEED OF SCHOOL WORK [chap. 

result is that the Yezd community is always 
pestered by internal intrigues. I do not think 
that the opposition to my school was religious, 
for the dasturs, that is the Zoroastrian priests, 
were always very friendly. I have always put 
it down rather to internal intrigue. 

My school work was originally undertaken at 
the explicit request of the natives, and the boys 
came chiefly, but not wholly, from the upper 
classes. It would be difficult, and very question- 
ably advisable, to start school work in a town 
like Yezd except under pressure from the natives. 
Even when the work has been forced on one, 
it is very difficult to maintain it. Not only is 
there still opposition from such quarters as I 
have mentioned, but it is only with the greatest 
difficulty that competent native assistance can be 
secured. If native assistance cannot be secured, 
the missionary who has work with enquirers 
will have difficulty in finding time even for 
short classes. Short classes may be the best 
thing under certain circumstances, but in a 
town like Yezd they do not meet the whole 
need. Boys are brought to you in Persia in 
most cases primarily to be taught English, but 
this demand for English is not the only require- 



vii.] FEES 241 

ment, nor is it the only need that is felt by the 
Persians. Persians will frequently tell you that 
they bring their boys to you for education in 
the largest sense; but we made it a practice in 
Yezd only to accept boys who wished to learn 
English, and whose parents could show that the 
knowledge of English was likely to be of some 
use to them. Very frequently poor lads would 
come, under the impression that the town was 
going to be occupied by Europeans, and that all 
who had learnt English would get remunerative 
employment in Yezd. The only thing to do 
under such circumstances was to explain the true 
state of affairs, and then to insist on payment 
being made in advance for all books, and also 
upon the payment of a six months' fee. The 
first argument was generally rather ineffectual, 
but supported by the second it always had the 
desired result. If it could be shown that a poor 
boy was likely to reap advantage from a know- 
ledge of English, fees were always remitted, and 
in some cases books were provided. 

The ordinary fees were very small, but had 
to be paid in advance for the half year. The 
education given comprised Persian subjects, 

arithmetic, English, and elementary geography. 

2 H 



242 GRATITUDE [chap. 

The Bible was read in Persian, night and morning, 
and the boys were expected to be present during 
the Bible reading and prayers. Latterly the whole 
routine work was put into the hands of natives, 
but I paid as much attention not only to 
superintendence but also to conversational classes 
as my other engagements would allow. Naturally 
there was a great difference in the efficiency of 
the school at different times. At first it was with 
the greatest difficulty that the work could be 
carried on at all, and what I was able to do was 
of the most trivial character. In the end, owing 
to the excellent work done by my Armenian 
assistants, and by Mihraban, my Parsi mirza, the 
results were really excellent. On the whole, I 
think I may say that the confidence reposed in 
the school system by the natives, was greater 
than I could have expected, and in many things 
both boys and parents proved excessively 
forbearing. 

In the matter of gratitude they showed 
discrimination, but the gratitude that was shown 
me by the pupils who stuck to the school for 
any time, and by their parents, was extraordinary. 
The lads themselves, both Parsi and Mussulman, 
were on the whole intelligent and teachable. I 



THE SCHOOL. 

This was drawn when the school was quite small. 

The figure on the left sitting in a chair is Mesak, my first 
Armenian schoolmaster. I am on the right leaning against a desk. 
The thing in my hand is a pointer and not an instrument of punish- 
ment. There is a wall in front of me on which was hung the thing 
to which I was pointing. I should perhaps mention that the square 
fire-place coming forward into the room is not of a usual shape : 
fire-places are generally let into the wall. All the boys in this 
picture are Mussulmans. 



vii.] NATIVE ASSISTANTS 243 

had, however, very much greater success in dealing 
with them when I had not myself to undertake 
the routine work of the schoolmaster. Possibly 
this was due partially to my not being suited for 
such work, but I am inclined to think that in 
most cases elementary school work is not quite 
the proper field for the European missionary in 
Persia. There is perhaps no harm in the 
evangelistic missionary who has not yet perfected 
himself in the language devoting more of his 
time to it; but, considering the enormous value 
of the work from a spiritual point of view, there 
should be no difficulty in getting funds to employ 
extra native assistants where the European 
missionary feels himself in a position to organise 
and superintend a school for native boys. These 
remarks do not apply to schools for girls, for 
which properly qualified native teachers can only 
be found with the greatest difficulty. My feeling 
is that not only can the fully qualified European 
missionary be more usefully employed if his time 
is not too largely given up to school work, but 
also much of the actual work of the school is 
better done by natives under European manage- 
ment, and the influence of the missionary with 
the boys may be rather increased than checked 



244 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION [chap. 

by his not having to teach them their ordinary 
lessons. It is, however, very difficult to separate 
what may be taken as a general principle in 
Persia from what was true of our particular 
circumstances in Yezd. I have before mentioned 
that I do not consider myself very fitted for 
ordinary school work. 

In the boys' school in Yezd we had at first 
a custom of never admitting a child until his 
father had been seen, and had thoroughly under- 
stood to what extent he would receive religious 
teaching. I used to pledge myself to teach 
nothing to the boy of Christian tradition apart 
from what could be found in the Kaldmvlllah, 
that is, the Word of God accepted by the Moham- 
medans, an expression which was thoroughly 
understood to include the whole of the Christian 
Bible. This may seem at first sight to have been 
merely a quibble, but it must not be forgotten 
in dealing with the Mussulman, that he is afraid 
of something like Romanism which will stand 
out in political as well as religious rivalry to 
Islam, and that he knows very little of the 
special tenets of Protestants. My assurance 
would at least have satisfied him that no attempt 
would be made to draw the boy into a foreign 



vil] RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 245 

politico-religious system. The fathers were also 
told that the boys would be expected to attend 
prayers. Latterly, as the school and its methods 
got better known, the necessity for these pre- 
cautions disappeared. However, when boys at 
the school came to me, as they frequently did, 
and told me that they wished to know more 
about Christianity, I invariably insisted that their 
fathers or guardians should be informed before 
they received special instruction. Of course they 
were always free to come to the Sunday School, 
which was held for them by my Armenian 
assistant, and which was attended by a few boys 
from other schools as well, and occasionally by 
one or two men. Many of the boys also were 
extremely regular in their attendance at the 
services, which we held at first in our houses, 
and afterwards in a chapel which was built in 
the hospital. 

Our school work in Yezd was in every way a 
thoroughly effective evangelistic agency. It 
brought me into touch with scores of adults who 
without it would never have entered my house. 
By increasing the general business with which 
I was surrounded, it also greatly facilitated my 
contact with those who came to me as regular 



246 LIMITATIONS [chap. 

enquirers. All this was additional to the direct 
effects of the school work, which I have reason to 
believe were exceedingly satisfactory. Altogether 
school work proved in Yezd to be one of the 
most effective forms of missionary effort. 

At the same time one or two things have to 
be borne in mind about it. First of all, it is 
extremely difficult for the evangelistic missionary 
to organise school work for the teaching of 
Persian subjects only that will successfully 
compete with the native schools. Further, the 
need for such work is not greatly felt by the 
natives. But the teaching of English is one of 
those things which missionaries are distinctly asked 
to undertake, and which they are able to under- 
take with great advantage. In a short time I have 
no doubt that industrial education will be an even 
more pressing need. The argument for schools 
as against classes is that their effect upon the 
moral character of the boys is much greater, and 
that the qualified missionary has by himself time 
for neither, unless indeed the classes are to be very 
short ones, and the staff that would be needed 
to properly undertake classes might just as well 
manage a school. 

With regard to fees, it seems to me that 



vii.] NECESSITY FOR CONTINUITY 247 

when assistants are employed fees should be 
charged ; but to get fees that would really cover 
the expenses would be impossible, and I personally 
think that the lower the fee the more easy it is 
to enforce its payment, and to keep the arrange- 
ments of the school entirely in one's own hands. 
This, however, is a matter over which there is 
plenty of room for difference of opinion. Of one 
thing I am certain, and that is that in the up- 
country towns educational work must begin 
amongst classes who can support the missionary 
against Persian intrigues and the direct opposition 
of the Mulla class. In starting a school in a 
Mussulman country the object of the missionary 
must always be to get the establishment regarded 
as a settled fact, consequently certain things which 
would otherwise be unimportant become matters 
of extreme moment. For instance, if anything 
should happen to the teaching staff, the school 
must be kept running, even if the pupils cannot 
under the circumstances make great progress. 
At one time I had to keep the school going when 
I was myself laid up in a sick room, and had no 
assistant capable of teaching much more than the 
primers. The day's work for the first class was 
written out by my wife, and sent into the school 



248 MEDICAL WORK [chap. 

by a servant. However, the school survived, and 
some while later, when it was again properly 
staffed, we saw the effects of our persistence, for 
while the town was absolutely under mob law, 
the school was never without a certain number of 
boys attending at the regular hours. Again, when 
the position of the school is temporarily assured, 
nothing can be better than some sort of public 
Speech Day, which both advertises its existence, 
and makes people understand that you regard its 
permanence as a matter of course. The fact is 
that in Persia all opposition and persecution is 
spasmodic, and if you can manage to go your 
own way for a sufficient time and then take your 
position for granted, you will be allowed to do 
things which vastly exceed your recognised rights 
and liberties. 

Medical mission work in Persia has been 
described by those who have been actively engaged 
in it. Under these circumstances I intend to 
speak very much less about it than I have done 
about other methods of work, though it is at least 
as important as any. It would be possible to 
divide the provinces of medical work in several 
ways, but it seems to me to be best treated under 
three heads : hospital work, dispensary work, 



vil] OUT-PATIENT WORK 249 

and medical visiting. The branch of medical work 

which is most obviously necessary, and also perhaps 

least productive of direct spiritual results is the 

work of the dispensary. A doctor settled in a 

Persian town is primarily expected to see all 

comers and to provide them with medicines. 

Indeed the Persian will come to the European 

for treatment whether he is a doctor or not. 

The business of the dispensary affords an excellent 

opportunity for giving an address on religious 

subjects, but comparatively little for systematic 

teaching of individuals, though contacts may be 

made during dispensary hours that may lead to 

further enquiry, and of course even systematic 

teaching can be given during dispensary hours 

by a determined worker. 

Medical visiting is just what the missionary 

is able to make it. The over-worked doctor 

with more visits than he can pay in the day 

has to be content with a very occasional reading 

and a word here and there as opportunity offers ; 

but there is no doubt that the opportunity is 

unique, and if time can be made during medical 

visits for more systematic spiritual teaching, such 

teaching is likely for several reasons to carry 

exceptional weight. Although perhaps medical 

2 i 



250 OUT-PATIENT WORK [chap. 

visits give a better opportunity to the doctor who 
wishes to himself follow up the work with religious 
teaching, dispensary work affords a much better 
opportunity for the bringing of other evangelists 
into such touch with the patients as will make it 
possible to find out any serious enquirers and to 
rouse others to further interest. The great diffi- 
culty in dispensary work and medical visiting, 
regarded as evangelistic agencies in Persia, is 
that the number of contacts is almost toojarge 
to handle. To begin with, the staff of missionaries 
is inadequate, and the difficulty is further increased 
by the peculiarities of the Persian, who in most 
cases is almost untouched by any teaching that is 
not systematic, and that does not go somewhat 
deeply into fundamentals. Of course these kinds 
of medical work produce more contacts than does 
anything else, but the difficulty in Persia is not 
to bring people within the hearing of the Gospels, 
but to convey to them something of the meaning 
of the Gospel. What makes the medical mission 
of the present time in Persia all-important is not 
that it is absolutely necessary for the purpose of 
bringing the evangelist into touch with the native, 
though in certain times and places it may be still 
greatly needed for this purpose; but the great 



vii.] HOSPITAL WORK 251 

point is that it has often explained the meaning 
of Christ crucified to men and women who with- 
out it seemed unable to grasp the Christian idea. 
This I believe to be true of all branches of medical 
mission work that I have mentioned, but at the 
same time it must be owned that the branch which 
has hitherto proved most satisfactory as a direct 
evangelistic agency is that connected with the 
hospital. Nobody can speak too highly of the 
potentialities of hospital work in Persia. It is 
almost inconceivable what misunderstanding of 
the doctor's attitude is possible in out-patient 
work in a Mussulman country. He is a bad 
man trying to work off his sins. He is sent 
out by the English Government at a high salary. 
He is making a very good profit out of the work. 
He is an instance of the subjection of the infidel 
to the Mussulman by the power of God. All 
these notions gradually die away under the 
systematic life and discipline of the hospital, 
with its atmosphere of trust and repose. Day 
by day men meet the doctor and his assistants 
and learn to know them ; they see the quiet 
persistence of their kindness, and its penetration 
into the smallest detail; best of all, they hear 
the Word of God day by day brought into a 



,, 



252 HOSPITAL WORK [chap. 

connected story and an intelligible system of 
salvation. In the best conducted hospitals the 
only misconception that is likely to remain is 
the belief that the missionaries as a body are 
trying to win a high place in Heaven by savabs. 
This dies very hard, and all we can say is that 
the hospital system, perhaps partly by its more 
definite discipline, tends to eradicate it. It is true 
that some workers have produced similar results 
by importing the atmosphere of Christian hospital 
work into the medical visit or the dispensary; 
but the point to be noted is that what is natural 
in the Christian hospital has in other forms of 
medical work to be deliberately and persistently 
fostered. In these if the highest spiritual results 
are to be obtained, there must be on the part of 
the worker a determination rather to guide the 
organisation towards them, than to depend on its 
essential qualities as a missionary force. It is not 
that hospital equipment is an essential for a 
doctor who wants to preach the Gospel, but no 
matter what a missionary may be, clergyman, lay 
evangelist, or medical, it is only by getting into 
close touch with the native, and by systematic 
and persevering teaching, that he can expect to 
extend Christ's Kingdom in Persian towns. 



vil] DIFFICULTIES 253 

Of course the position of the medical missionary 
who is invited to the town by those in authority, 
as is frequently the case, is very different from 
that of most other missionaries. There may be 
a real demand for school teaching, but even 
when school work has been started and placed 
on a satisfactory footing, it never appeals so 
generally to the interest of all classes as to be 
superior to any intrigue that may arise, or to 
bursts of fanatical bigotry. At the same time 
the medical missionary who has gone to a new 
station finds that even when invited he is on 
trial. When free medicines are given, as oh 
some occasions they have been for a short period, 
two - thirds of the people throw them away 
without using them. Even those who have 
invited him are quite ready to turn against him, 
at any rate behind his back. These difficulties, 
although real, are minor ones, and there are very 
few European doctors, possessed of an ordinary 
amount of common- sense and a good material 
equipment, who cannot get over them in a short 
while. The real danger is lest the missionary 
by regarding these difficulties as more serious 
than they really are should become too absorbed 
in his efforts to overcome them. Medical work 






254 ASSISTANTS [chap. 

is really an enormous power. It may make 
possible, under God's providence, steps and 
measures which would otherwise be utterly 
impossible. But if it is to be fully used to 
God's glory, these God-given powers must be 
realised, and put forth to their full extent. 

Medical and school work have one other 
advantage besides those that have been mentioned, 
for they enable a class of men to participate 
in mission work who as ordinary evangelistic 
missionaries would be useless. In the first place, 
there is the newly - arrived European, who 
imperfectly understands the language, and who 
yet may do more or less effective work while 
he is still studying, if he is connected with a 
medical or educational organisation. Secondly, 
if it were not for schools and medical work it 
would be exceedingly difficult for the Persian 
missions to employ natives, except in menial 
capacities or in positions attended with the 
gravest peril. Here to my mind we have one 
of the greatest arguments for medical and school 
work, and this from the directly evangelistic 
standpoint. 

This brings the subject of methods of work 
in Persian towns like Yezd to a conclusion. It 



vil] SUMMARY 255 

is not impossible to work as a simple evangelist, 
but it needs certain qualifications and abilities. 
Generally speaking, the ordinary missionary must 
be prepared to use both hands and both feet, and 
to enter in whatever way seems most expedient 
into the life of the town. There is no room for 
university work, and technical instruction has 
not yet been tried, but elementary school work 
and medical work are both much needed and 
much appreciated, and they further afford an 
abundant field for directly evangelistic labour. 



CONCLUSION. 

We have now seen something not only of the 
Yezdi's life, of his character, and of his mental 
attitude towards the missionary, but also some- 
thing of the way in which the modern missionary 
attempts to meet this attitude. Of course it 
cannot be claimed that the estimate of the Yezdi's 
position that has been made in these pages is in 
any way final, or that it is one with which all 
acquainted with the subject would certainly 
concur. To have limited myself to the greatest 
common measure of opinion on such a matter 
would have prevented me altogether from touch- 
ing on many questions, and would have left me 
very little to say on others. As the book stands, 
I can claim that it is truthful in matters of fact, 
and in other things sufficiently sound to form a 
basis for other people's corrections ; and as many 
find it less easy to state their own views than to 
combat those of other persons, I am not without 

256 



CONCLUSION 257 

hopes that it may be useful, even if my con- 
clusions should prove altogether unacceptable. 
Also it may be pointed out that, though I have 
throughout spoken of the Yezdi and of Yezd, 
these have been taken as special instances of a 
Persian and his town. Other places in central 
Persia may differ in particulars, but there will 
in most cases be a general similarity. 

Perhaps a short summary of the points which 
have been noted in the preceding pages may not 
be without value. We have seen first of all 
the strange staccato effect of Persian scenery, 
particularly of that which meets the eye of the 
Yezdi, and have noticed how this has influenced 
the Yezdi's mind. Then we have seen the 
extreme insularity of the town, and how this has 
given rise to symptoms which resemble intense 
fanatical bigotry, but on the other hand how 
this insularity may be utilised by the foreigner 
when it is once understood. Then we have tried 
to discover the essential system of Islam, and to 
decide whether or not the Persian Shiah has been 
greatly influenced by the prophet's life and teach- 
ing. My own opinion is that Persia is most 
strongly Mohammedan, but seeing that the point 

of this book is not so much to express opinions 

2 K 



258 CONCLUSION 

as to give the facts that have led to their forma- 
tion, I must not complain if many of my readers 
do not agree with me. An attempt has also been 
made to explain the religiosity of the Moham- 
medan, and to show that it is neither hypocrisy, 
nor yet religion in the Western sense. Then 
there was a chapter on the Yezdi's character, 
and I think that in this my main point was 
to show how superficial is the judgment that 
pronounces the Persian thoroughly weak and 
effete. He really shows great strength of 
purpose when he has a purpose, he has some 
peculiar abilities, and is at bottom thoroughly 
likeable and loveable, but he is spoilt by the 
unhappy circumstances of his existence and very 
specially by his creed. 

After that there was an attempt to show the 
peculiar nature of the search after truth that 
is just now going on in Persia, and very 
particularly in Yezd. That this is God's doing, 
intended to prepare the way for Christian teach- 
ing, I have in my own mind no doubt at all ; 
but I have tried to describe it as a phenomenon, 
and sometimes to trace it to immediate causes 
where such causes are easily discoverable. 
Lastly, I have tried to show that towns like 



CONCLUSION 259 

Yezd present a field, not only workable by one 
class of missionary organisation, but approach- 
able in many different ways. 

I sincerely trust that those who have followed 
the argument of these chapters will have come 
to my own conclusion, that, although there are 
enormous difficulties in missionary work in Persia, 
there are also enormous opportunities, and that 
there is great reason to expect that in such a 
country things will one day come with a rush : 
further, that when the barrier of Mohammedanism 
is removed, there are grounds for hoping that 
Persian character will recover its equilibrium and 
the nation prove by no means decadent. If in 
addition the spiritual force of Christianity be 
brought to bear upon the people, Persia may 
prove in the future the missionary power of the 
near East. Persia at this moment is full of 
religious enquirers, willing to make immense 
sacrifices for their convictions ; and behind these 
there is a mass of simple people, religiously 
minded and yet utterly dissatisfied with their 
present creed. There are of course great pre- 
judices still existing against Christianity, but 
these prejudices have been by God's blessing 
broken down in individual instances, and when 



260 CONCLUSION 

their nature is better realised they may more 
generally disappear. It is not necessary to give 
actual statistics with reference to converts : it 
is enough to say that the number of those who 
have come forward in Yezd is sufficient to prove 
two things; firstly, that God is willing to bless 
the work very fully, and secondly, that we are 
not quite ready for His blessing. 1 

If any further proof were needed of God's 
willingness to forward the work of the Yezd 
mission, it would be found in the history of the 
Christian institutions in the town. The medical 
work was founded by Dr Henry White about 
six years and a half back, he having been in the 
Isfahan district for about twelve months previous 
to his arrival in Yezd. There is now not only 
a men's hospital and dispensary in the town, 
but also two dispensaries in the outlying villages, 
and a women's hospital and dispensary under Dr 
Elsie Taylor. In connection with the medical 
work one can hardly help mentioning the name 
of Miss Bird, who really founded the work 
amongst the women, and that of Dr Griffith, 
who did most valuable work during the furlough 
of Dr White. 

1 The opinion that Persia is changing its religion, or at least its form 
of Mohammedanism, is not confined to missionary circles. 



CONCLUSION 261 

The site for the men's hospital was given to 
the Society shortly after Dr White's arrival, by 
the late Mr Gudarz, a prominent Parsi merchant 
in the town. The medical mission in Yezd may 
be said to be quite as firmly established as the 
Government. 

I myself came to Yezd six months later than 
Dr White, without any previous experience of 
Persia. My successor, Mr Boyland, has now 
under his charge a school of about sixty boys, 
Mussulmans, Babis and Parsis, with a staff of 
native masters. The boys in spite of their 
religious differences play football together. The 
religious teaching in the school is given without 
the slightest concealment. There is also a school 
for Parsi girls more lately established by Miss 
Brighty. In this school religious instruction is 
also given. When I left Yezd the number of 
the pupils was about forty. 

I may also mention that in the chapel which 
we have built in the hospital we often have 
congregations of over a hundred Persians. The 
chapel cost something under a hundred pounds, 
and the funds were subscribed, all but twenty- 
five pounds, by the members of the European 
colony. 



262 CONCLUSION 

It is a great mistake to regard such work as 
we have in Yezd as primarily of a preparatory 
nature in view of some future opportunity. 
Babiism, which is in some ways more opposed 
to Christianity than the religion of the average 
Persian Mussulman, is fast gaining ground, and 
the exceptional opportunity, which is occasioned 
by the preparation of the soil by Babi missionaries 
who have not yet been successful in planting 
their ideas, is fast passing away. It has been 
already pointed out that there is not much hope 
of real religious liberty under native rule. 

Some people think that there are shortly 
going to be changes in Persia which will entirely 
deprive the British missionary of his opportunity. 
If we take this view we ought to act quickly. 
Taking a second and more hopeful view of the 
future, other political developments which might 
make religious liberty in any sense a reality, 
would find us by no means in a position to make 
the best use of them, unless we had a native 
church gathered in time of stress and strain 
upon whose judgment to rely. 

Consequently mission work in Persia is a 
matter which demands most careful consideration, 
most unsparing effort, and most earnest prayer. 



CONCLUSION 263 

We ought not to lack recruits. That there are 
difficulties to be solved is true, but when all has 
been said the overwhelming horror of modern 
Mohammedanism, the intense hopefulness of 
Persian character, and last but not least, the 
obvious preparation made by God in this country 
for human evangelistic labours, all together 
present a situation which cannot but appeal to 
the Christian Englishman. 



GLOSSARY 



Aivan 

Anjuman 

Arhhaluq 

Bab'i . 

Bad-gir 

Bagh 

Behai 

Chadar 



Charvadar 
Dastur 
Dlv . 
Farrash 

Ferangi 
Firman 
Islam 



Jaziya 



Jin . 
Kqjava 

Khan 



A kind of portico, or roofed recess. 

Assembly, committee. 

Under-coat. 

Follower of the Bab. 

Air-shaft. 

Enclosed cultivation. 

Follower of Behaullah. 

Sheet ; especially the cotton shawl 

worn over the head and whole 

body by the women. 
Muleteer, or donkey caravan driver. 
Parsi priest. 
Demon. 
Literally a carpet-sweeper. Really 

a servant, chiefly outdoor. 
Frank, European. 
Government order. 
Resignation to God. The name 

given by Mohammed to his 

religion. 
Poll tax levied by Mohammedans 

on non-Mohammedan monotheists 

living in their country. 
Genius ; a being composed of fire. 
A kind of wooden pannier with a 

hood. 
A hereditary title. 

2 L 26s 



266 


GLOSSARY 


Kran 


. A coin worth about 4Jd., the tenth 




part of a toman. 


Kursl 


. Wooden stool. Especially one used 




over a pan of charcoal to support 




a quilt. 


Lala . 


. A spring candlestick with a globe. 


Liiti . 


. A rough ; a bad character. 


Man' . 


. A weight varying in different towns. 




In Yezd it is about 13 lbs. 


Manzil 


Halting-place. 


Mazra' 


. A piece of cultivated land. 


Mirzd 


. Clerk, secretary. 


Muballigh . 


. A missionary. The word is gener- 




ally used of the Behai missionaries 




in Yezd. 


Miytahid . 


. The highest class of the Moham- 




medan clergy. 


Mulla 


A word very like our term " clerk. 1 ' 




It is generally used of the clergy, 




but it is sometimes a mere 




courtesy title, and sometimes 




means a man who can read. 


Mussulman^ Muslim 


. A believer in Islam. One who is 




resigned to God. 


Nakhl 


. A religious implement. 


Nijasat 


. Ceremonial uncleanness. 


Paighambar 


. Message bearer, prophet. 


Paighambarl 


. Prophethood. 


Qaba . 


Outer coat. 


Qalantar . 


. Head-man. The title is used in 




Yezd for the head-man of the 




Parsis. 



GLOSSARY 



267 



Qalian 
Qarfat 
Raiyat 



Ruza khani 

Saughat 

Savab 

Seyid 

Shiah 



Sunnat 



Sunni 



Taqdlr 
Taqlya 

Tauh'id 
Toman 

Yailaq 

Zardtishtl 



Persian hookah. 
Underground water-channel. 
Agriculturist, a tenant farmer who 

pays rent in kind. It also means 

a subject. 
Religious recitation. 
A traveller's present. 
Work of merit. 
A descendant of Mohammed. 
Nonconformist. However, there is 

a Shiah sect held orthodox in 

Persia. 
Ancient traditions and Commentary 

on the Quran accepted by the 

Sunnis. 
A member of the Mohammedan 

sect accepting the Sunnat, who 

are considered orthodox in 

Turkey, India, and Africa, as 

opposed to the Shiahs of Persia 

and elsewhere. 
Predestination. 
Concealment of faith by denial in 

times of danger. 
Assertion of the Divine Unity. 
A sum of money, 10,000 dinars, 

equivalent to about 3s. 8d. 
Summer quarters, generally a village 

in the hills. 
Follower of Zardiisht or Zoroaster, 

the Parsi prophet. 



INDEX 



Abbas, 67 

Abu Jahl, 67 

Abu Talib, Mohammed's uncle, 

67 
Alvan, 18 
Ali, Imam, 75-77 
Ali Mohammed (Bab), 90, 91 
Anjurnan, 49 
Arbab Jamshid, a wealthy Parsi 

at Tehran, 51 
Arches, 16 
Arkhdluq, 45 

Armenian Christians, 58, 107 
Aryan Parsis, 62 
Atmosphere, absence of moisture 

in, 13 

Bab, gate of knowledge, 73 

, first book-bearer of the 

Behais, founder of the Babi sect, 

90,91 
Babis, the, 79, 86, 88, 91, 94, 108, 

177, 187, 193, 212 ; massacre of, 

104, 155-157, 186; martyrs, 138, 

139 
Bdd-gir, 14, 15, 46 
Bdgh, 9-11 
Bazaars, 11 
Behais, the, 61, 81 ; massacre of, 

44, 52, 87-89, 104; tenets of, 

86, 90, 92-96, 104, 114 
Behau'llah, first book-bearer of 

the Behais, 81, 87, 89, 90, 92, 

95, 193 
Bigotry, in Yezd, 44 



Bird, Miss, 260 

Boyland, Mr, 261 

Brighty, Miss, 261 

Browne, Professor E. G., translator 

of the Tarikhi Jaclid, 91 
Bruce, Canon, 58, 59 

Carpenters, of Yezd, 23 

Carpets, 22 

Caspian Sea, 2 

Ghddar, 122 

Chairs, 24 

Gliurch Missionary Intelligencer, 95 

Church Missionary Society, 55, 

230, 232 
Cleanliness, of Yezdis, 26 
Converts, problem of, 196-198, 

212-215 
Crime, indifference to, 184 
Curtains, 21 

Deserts, salt and sandy, 2, 3 
Dlnyar, Qaldntar of the Parsi 

Committee, 49 
Divorce, 178 
Dlvs, 121, 122 
Doors, 19, 20 

Etiquette and Manners, of the 

Yezdis, 158 
European colony, in Yezd, 55 
Evil Eye, 122 

Fanaticism, of Yezdis, 54 
Farrdsh, 47 

269 



270 



INDEX 



Fireplaces, 21 
Fittings of houses, 21 
Flower-beds, 33, 34 
Forgiveness of sins, Mohammed's 

teaching on the, 98 
Furniture, 21-26 

Gardens, 9 

Griffith Dr, 100, 260 

Gudarz, Mr, a prominent Parsi 

merchant of Yezd, 261 
Gypsum, 17 

Hakim Khanum, lady doctor, 102 
Hanifs, reformers, 65, 66, 68, 70 
Hasan, Imam, 133, 134 
Heaven and Hell, Mussulman idea 

of, 98, 99 
Hill villages, 31, 32 
Hookahs, Persian, 25 
Houses, 13-33 ; built for heat, 29, 

30 
Husain, Imam, 133, 134 
Huts, mud, 28 



Ibn Ishak, the biographer, 68 
Ibrahim Qalll Khan, 50 
Imam Ali, 75-77 

Hasan, 133, 134 

Husain, 133, 134 

Imams, the, 73, 76, 77 
Industrial missions — a suggestion, 

197-201 
Infidels, Persian attitude towards, 

130 
Insularity, of Yezd, 36 
Isaiah, quoted, 95 
Isfahan, 36 

Isfahanis, and Yezdis, 38 
Isfandiar, a Parsi schoolmaster at 

Taft, 51 
Islam, doctrine of, 64, 65, 80-82, 

96, 97, 110, 132 133; has 

ruined Persia, 112 
Isolation, of Yezd, 36 



Jadid, a convert from Parsiism, 
62 

Jalalu'd Daula, the, 52, 183 

Jazlya, 47, 49 

Jews, in Yezd, 44, 52 ; Mo- 
hammed's dealings with, 71 

Jim, 121, 122 

Julfa, a suburb of Isfahan, 58 

Jus Patermvm, in Yezd, 181 

Ka'aba, a heathen temple of the 

Meccans, 65 
Kashan, 7, 43 

Khadija, wife of Mohammed, 66 
Khalifs, the, 72, 76 
Khauf u jizd, fear of hell and 

expectation of heaA^en, 98 
Kirman, 7, 36 
Koelle, Life of Mohammed, 67, 68, 

71 
Kucha Biyuk, village, 49 
Kursi, 22, 30 

Lala, 25 
Lamps, 25 

Language, Persian, 152 
Laristan, 43 
Lattices, 19 
Ledges, 16 
Looking-glasses, 21 
Lutls, 51, 58 

Mahdi, or Mehdi, the last of the 
Imams, 72, 73, 75 

Manukji Limji, Parsi representa- 
tive in Tehran, 48, 50 

Manzil, 34 

Marriages, Persian, 178 

Mazra\ 4, 5 

Mecca, 63, 65, 69, 70 

Medical Missions, in Yezd, 55, 
229, 248-254 

Medina, 63, 70, 71 

Mihraban, a Parsi, 64 

Miracle play, Muharram, 126, 134 

Missionary in Persia, the, his 
difficulties, 188-216 ; the problem 



INDEX 



271 



Missionary (contin ned) — 

of converts-, 106-198, 212-215 ; 

his tasks and duties, 217-25.0 ; 

philanthropic work, 229-232 ; 

poor relief, 232-239 ; school and 

medical work, 239-254 
Missions, Christian, tolerated in 

Yezd, 55, 5u' ; industrial, 197- 

201. 
aiuliiuumed, 63-72, 81, 85, 90, 91, 

96, 97, 112, 113, 128, 130; his 

birth, 65 ; his wife, 6'U ; head 

of the llanif movement, 67; 

hl-> admiration of the Jews, 124 
Mohniiiiuedani.su>, Persian, 60, 

64-114 ; aspects in Ye/d of, 

115-135 
Monogamy, 177, 178 
Mountain streams, 5 
Mv.ballif.jh, teacher and missionary, 

88, 89 
Mud, use of, 12 ; huts of, 28 
Muhammad Hasan Khan, Governor 

of Yezd, 48 
Muharram, 133 
MujUthul, -16-18, 56, 58, 73-75, 

88 
Mulla Bahrain of Khuramshar, a 

Parsi, -18 
Miinaliqiri, hypocrites, 80 
Mushiru'l Mamalik, the, 51 
Mussulman v. Armenian morality, 

118 
Muzatl'aru'd Din, Shah, 49 

Nakiil, 134 

Niwiru'd Din, Shah, 48 

NiisiruM Din, Mulla, and his 

mule, story of, 149 
Nijdsut, 132" 
K on-couf ormit y in Persia, 61 

Oasis, 3, 4 

Omar, Kliallf, 76, 135 

Opium trade, 170 
Ornamentation, of houses, 17 



PAtr.nAMUARi' 84, 85, 96, 110, 

127 
Parsis in Yezd, oppression and 

persecution of, 44-52 
Pilgrimages, Mussulman, 118, 128 
Plain, a typical Persian, 7 
Polygamy, 177 
Poor relief, 232-239 
Postal arrangements, in Yezd, 36 

Qaju, 45, 48 

QaUhdar, 49 

Qxilidn, 25 

Qum, 119 

Quran, the, 73, 74, 76, 77, 92, 

93, 105, 107-109, 119, 120, 124, 

130 

Rainfall, 0, 29 

Ramaziin, Mohammedan Fast, 78 

Kasht, 43, 233 

Rice, Rev. W. A., 95 

Rusfami Ardisluri Dlnyar, a 

Parsi, 49 
Rasctkhdiii, 126, 196 

SaHAMU 5 L MnLK, 51 

tidhibi kildb, a hook-bearer, Mo- 

1 hammed regarded as the last, 

72 
Salaiuat, a Parsi, 51 
Salt and sandy deserts, 2, 3 
Hiiitghdi.% 162- 
Siivdbs, 98-105 

School work, in Yezd, 239-248 
Soiid, a descendant of M ohammed, 

50, 101, 102 
Shaikhi sect, the, i)l 
tihalir, a town, 39 
Shiahs, or nonconformists, 60, 73- 

78, 86, 87. 93-98, 103, 105-109, 

124. 128, 134, 177, 212 
Shiraz, 36, 43 
Silkworms, 233 
Soldiers, Persian, 156 
Streams, mountain, 5 



272 



INDEX 



Sublii Azal, second book-bearer of 

the Behaifi. 90, 92 - 
Sufis, sect of the, 86, 108 
Summer buildings, 15, 29 
Sunnat, 73, 74 
Suunis, and their creed, 63, 72, 

74, 77, 80, 94, JOG 
Superstition, 121-123 

Tabus, 23, 24 

Tuft village, 51, 134 

Tdldr, summer portico, 14, 15 

Tdqchas, ledges, JO, 21-26 

Taqdir, 97 

Taqri/a, 212 

Ttlrikld JadKl 91 

Taahid, 127 

Taylor, Dr Elsie, 260 

Teheran, 2 

Telegraph line, native, 37 

Tirandilz, a Parsi, 49 

Torndn, 47 

Trinket boxes, 26 

Turners, of Yezd, 23 

UnclkaNNESS, degrees of, 130- 

132 
Untruthfulness of Persians, 116, 

142 

Vatax, home-district, 39 
Villages, 8 ; hill-, 31, 32 

Walls, house-, 16 
Waraka ibn Nawfal, a prominent 
Hani/, 66 



Water system, 6 

White, i)r Henry, 201, 260, 261 

Windows, 19, 20 

Winter rooms, 18 

Yaila'q, 31 

Yazid, 134 

Yawl district, houses in, 1-35 ; its 
isolation and insularity, 36 

Yezdis, and Isfahan is, 38 ; their 
religion, 111, 120-126; character 
of the, 136-187 ; systematised 
inconsistency, 137 ; loyalty, 
138 ; sense of shame, 147 ; 
humour, 148 ; their disregard 
of time, 150 ; difficulties of 
their language, 152 ; lack of 
initiative, 154; their courage, 
155 ; etiquette and manners of, 
158; their triviality, 160; pride, 
165, 166 ; kindliness, cruelty, 
166; dishonesty, 142, 168; 
lack of business habits, 171 ; 
fatalism, 173 ; latent strength, 
176; their family ties, 177; 
jhj.s- pater num., 1H\ ; religions 
'liberty, 181-183 ; indifference 
to crime, 184 ; open-handness, 
184 

Zatd, 71 

Zaid ibn Amr, 66 

Zainab, 71 

ZardushM (Zoroastrian), 50 

ZUlu's Sultan, 50, 52 

Zoroastrians, in Yezd, 46-53, 113 



l'EINTKD AT THE EDINBURGH i-RESS, 9 AND II YOUNG STKEIiT. 



CENTRAL PERSIA, illustrating FTVE YEARS IN A PERSIAN TOWN. 

_______ ===== By the Rev. Napier Malcolm . 











a 



